Dauntless Core
by CertifyyedGoon
Summary: High School becomes much more complicated for Sasuke Uchiha as he becomes better acquainted with Sakura Haruno, an aspiring athelete with more than one secret to keep- It didn't matter if Sasuke liked her. He couldn't save her.
1. Morning Workout

**Summary: High School becomes much more complicated for Sasuke Uchiha as he grows more acquainted with Sakura Haruno, an athelete with more than one secret to keep.**

** The characters are very much themselves, with the exception of Sakura. Well, rather than say I changed her, I more or less made her who she would be if she was faced with hardships at an early age. As for Sasuke and Naruto I kept them pretty much themselves, which is intentional since I enjoy them as they are. **

**Chapter 1.**

The sun had not risen yet over the horizon fully, leaving flakes and flares of pink light over the track and field behind the school. Sasuke apprehensively stood by the gate biting his lower lip in his only physical representation of surprise. The school usually wouldn't open the gate until seven forcing him to wait outside until a janitor saw him, allowing him into the library to read. Today it was already opened.

He didn't question it, stepping inside. The sun slowly began to grow larger in the east, the mist growing heavier with the rising humidity, but Sasuke didn't let it bother him any more than the usual weather would. The fact that the heat was beginning so early in the morning was slightly disturbing but no more than a sign that he should get more hydrated as the day progressed.

The tapping of shoes caught his ears' attention and he froze, standing next to the track field by the locker rooms, nearly hidden in the shadow of the building. There was a rushing sound off to his right which he turned to but couldn't catch in time before a soft plopping sound. The high jump.

Sasuke peered into the mist, squinting his eyes but even then he could barely see the figure in the distance, getting to their feet slowly from the high jump pad. Sasuke could see that the bar, set to at least 5 feet high, was still in tact, which, though no record-breaking height, was impressive for someone at a high school level. Sasuke attempted to see the jumper but couldn't catch a glimpse in the mist and at that distance. His inquisitiveness overtook his desire to see the library and he took a few tentative steps outward, trying to see the jumper.

Sakura lowered her body into a crouch, already warmed, stretched, and thoroughly ready for a brisk run around the track. The hurdles were already in place and gleaming in the early morning light, slick with mist like her skin. She eyed them, her gaze set with determination. A girl as short as her had difficulty jumping over those things at full speed, and she was certainly no different. They were a bit frightening to her, to be honest. There was always the fear of her foot getting caught on one of them, sending her sprawling onto her face. She shuddered at the mental image but geared up nonetheless. She looked at her watch on her left wrist and set it to start in five seconds. In five seconds it would beep loudly and she would sprint around the track as fast as she could, jumping the hurdles in her way and hopefully breaking her own record.

She took a long breath, the sweat already beginning to accumulate on the back of her neck and on the sides of her temples. Beep. Beep.

She bolted.

Sasuke could see her, her body tensed like a spring, pink hair tied back and green eyes blazing from the exercise. He had never seen a more intense glare in her normally spastic eyes. He vaguely heard a beeping sound and faster than his eyes could catch, she bolted like a bullet from a revolver from her crouched position into a full on sprint. Her body moved gracefully, her legs making strong powerful strides and covering as much ground as someone twice her size. She was like a bolt of lightning, and she gracefully cleared the first hurdle without losing a millisecond of speed. He couldn't help but be enraptured by it, the sheer force in her gaze as she practically stared down the next hurdle like an enemy then as she cleared it watch the look of congratulations she'd give herself. One after the other surrendered to the power of her legs and arms, both moving in complete synchronization, yet those eyes devoured Sasuke's attention like a magnet. She seemed hellbent on completing the lap with no mistakes. No flaws.

Sakura flew faster and faster, panting and feeling her body protest with every step yet she was exhilarated at the same time. Her heart began to slowly tell her brain that this was getting dangerous though. Her lungs were overworking themselves, the asthma kicking in at the exact wrong moment. For a moment, the moment before the final lunge and the last twenty feet of the track, she could feel her heart stop, her lungs cave in and wheeze, out of breath. Her feet had already left the ground, but her heart sank as they caught the final hurdle, slipping off the plastic material easily but it had been enough to throw her off balance.

Sakura tumbled through the air like a ragdoll, flipping end over end, her hands blocking her blow enough to roll her to the side, where she continued to tumble until finally, six feet from where she had originally landed, she stopped, panting heavily.

Sasuke tensed and resisted the urge to rush in after her, but she slowly got her hands underneath her body before hoisting herself up. She sat there panting for a bit, and Sasuke watched with smug satisfaction. She fell. Would she cry? Throw a fit? She seemed like the kind of girl who would sob and feel sorry for herself. Most girls were like that at this school...

Her shoulders began to tremble and he shook his head, silently congratulating himself on his correct prediction. But abruptly the sound of laughter not tears struck his ears like a hammer against a gong. She was laughing, clapping her hands at herself like a fool and tears of mirth running down her face. She clutched her stomach she was laughing so hard, slowly getting to her feet and walking back to the hurtle that had felled her.

Sakura looked at the thing like it was an old friend playing a practical joke on her, and she she lifted it back to a standing position, Sasuke could have sworn he saw her patting it with her other hand. Before checking it out of course. "Ho, dang," he heard her laugh to herself, noticing her limb covered with blood and dirt. Her knees were in the same condition as well as her other arm and even a bit of her face. But that intensity never left her eyes for a second. "Well that wasn't so bad. Haha..." She traced a finger over the hurtle again. "I thought that would be much worse."

"No more fear," she whispered to herself. "I can conquer it now."

A noise to her right made her head snap up, red rising to her cheeks. God forbid anyone saw that. But thankfully no one was there. Just her and the empty track field. Even now the mist was beginning to clear.

"Good God, Sakura!" Naruto cried, looking the girl up and down at the lunch table as she stood before him, her lunch tray in hand. Her face, arms and legs were covered in bandages and band aids, and she smelled like ointment.

"What?" she asked with a small grin. "I'm gearing up for Halloween. I'm being a Mummy this year."

"Jesus Christ," the blonde boy murmured while she sat beside him. Ino, Shikamaru, and Kiba voiced there opinions in loud declarative statements, but Naruto made a point of pulling her aside. "Listen, Sakura, if anyone's messing with you, you know I'll-"

"Keep it cool," she hissed with a small laugh. "I'll tell you later what happened, I promise, but it's just embarrassing, alright?"

He leaned back slowly. "Fine..."

"Sakura."

The table stopped talking at the sound of Sasuke's voice. No one had even noticed him sitting down with his lunch on the other side of Naruto before now, and the seriousness in his voice was slightly disturbing.

Sakura could feel her face begin to get hot, feeling the severity of his scrutiny.

Sasuke was ever the cool one of the group, rarely speaking and never laughing as the others. He seemed to have other pressing matters to occupy his thoughts. Sasuke had come to the school a few months after the beginnings of Freshman year, an old friend of Naruto's from his middle school days. He'd been intensely popular from day one, catching the eyes and hearts of every girl from class A to Z, and Sakura was no exception. Sasuke was the complete package: good looking, smart, athletic, serious, and capable. His family was rich and of the powerful elite of the city, and as one of the top students of the school, his future looked to be set in gold. Any girl to claim such a prize was sure to have her life set. Many girls tried and failed to hook up with the sullen Uchiha, going as far as to scream and clamor about in crowds, creating signs and banners and generally disturbing all peace. Their love was overwhelming.

Sakura, however, knew her attraction for the silent youth was nothing more than the natural reaction a young female body held for the ideal male. Evolution dictated that the strongest, most capable male was the most desirable for a mate, and her body reacted accordingly. She was a smart girl, top of her class in academics with an IQ surpassing most of the professors in college, and she therefore knew better than to react to the sways of a weak human body. She had her own diminishing body to care for anyway, so she left him alone and pretended he wasn't there. It prevented her from gushing and sputtering about like a fool. However, being spoken to directly from him made that incredibly difficult.

The young Uchiha's black eyes were almost like probes, assessing her mercilessly.

"Y-yeah?" She tried to act natural.

"Where'd you get the bandages?"

Her mind instantly raced with every possible answer to that question. There were so many ways she could go with it. Her heart longed for a conversation with him, anything to keep that gaze, unnerving as it was, fixated upon her. The conditions for which she'd received the bandages made making the decision much easier. She played it dumb. "The nurses' office of course!"

He sat back, disgusted, folding his arms over his chest. "Whatever."

The mood at the table grew darker by the second and Naruto couldn't stand it. "You know what?"

And he divulged a homespun tale of his last visit to the ramen shop down the corner, and at that point the entire table yelled at him to be quiet, burst into a fit of laughter and forgot about Sasuke's eyes. Except Sakura. Though she appeared nonchalant, she could feel him staring at her, and already the hairs on the nape of her neck grew higher and higher.

The high jump. Sakura's favorite track event. She was setting the bar higher today than before at five feet seven inches, and as she stared it down, contemplating if she could ever surmount something over three inches higher than she was, she could feel another set of eyes staring her down. She spun and saw Sasuke again, looking at her for a moment before flicking his head away. He was down by the hurtles, stretching his long legs and hips. Already he was sweating from the high heat, and he held a water bottle to his lips before stretching his arms. He was taller than most boys, a few inches over Naruto and his face was pale and flawless, like ivory. Even the light spray of sweat over his face served to be almost like a glossy finished cast over a work of art. His body was thin yet muscular, the makings of a six-pack bulging from his shirt when he turned his body the right way, which was often while he was moving one arm behind his back, then switching.

Surprisingly he talked easily to Naruto beside him, his lips moving but his eyes darting Sakura's way between every couple of phrases. Naruto either ignored those subtle glances or didn't notice them, laughing hard at whatever Sasuke had said. At this the dark-haired boy smirked, his mouth curving upward. Sakura felt heat rise to her face, and at this point she averted her eyes and looked at the high jump.

This sight, though not nearly as intoxicating, was much safer.

"You ready?" Ino was Sakura's partner for the day, the one who had set up the bar and who had tested the mat to make sure it was ready to catch Sakura's body. "What the..." Ino's eyes glanced over Sakura's shoulder.

"What?" Sakura turned back to the other side of the field toward the hurtles, back to where Sasuke was standing. Again she made sure to avert her gaze from him.

Ino shook her head. "I could have sword Sasuke was staring at you."

Sakura laughed nervously. "I hope not. This is gonna be embarrassing when I fall flat on my face."

The blonde girl shook her head and laughed. "You always say that! Even though you're the best on our track team. How bout some faith in yourself, okay?"

"Yeah, yeah, you ready or not?"

"I've been waiting. Go ahead!"

"You know, this isn't as easy as it looks right? I have to get focused!"

Ino's head shook, her blonde ponytail shifting over the backs of her shoulders. "Just go already, will you?"

Sakura took a deep breath and eyed the high jump again, inhaling through her nose, exhaling through her mouth and repeating the process. She held out a long pointed hand toward the high jump, challenging it. She could feel the eyes of the rest of the students on the field flick their gazes to her. As Ino had said she was the best on the team, which sometimes attracted more attention than she liked when practicing. She closed her eyes, and locked all of them out, especially Sasuke. Of course she was half imagining he was watching too... of course...

Then she took off, curving her steps toward the pole and then vaulting through the air. Her body twisted mid air, the first half of her body making it over easily. It was the control of when to move the feet out of the way of the pole that was the hardest part. Her hands twisted with her, and her feet lifted at the exact right second, barely missing the pole by the tips of her shoes.

She landed with a thwack against the mat, berated by the sounds of Ino's excited screams. "You did it! Sakura you broke the school record!"

The whole track team surrounded the high jump, roaring with approval, as one of them dashed out to get the coach to make it official. They screamed and cheered her name, and she smiled, slowly getting to her feet and crawling out of the mat with a hand from Ino. Sakura could even see Naruto running from the other side of the field to probably tackle her to the ground in excitement.

The voices of her surrounding peers grew louder and louder in Sakura's ear drums, and she blinked trying to take everything in. For some reason her breathing wouldn't calm down despite being relieved from the harsh task of the jump, and she panted harshly in and out. No one seemed to notice, cheering her name as one of the more studious students rushed up with a notebook, recording the time of day, the height of the jump and Sakura's student information, intending to take it to the track coach as indisputable proof. Sakura's eyes began to blur, and she gasped repeatedly, breathing, breathing, breathing but the feeling of not having enough air was frightening her, sending her body into a panic. It was all too much. The record was broken, the people were crowding her, taking her air. Her air... Her lungs were closing up and fast, her heart slowing in her chest. Her brain protested violently, screaming at the rest of her body "More air! More air!"

But nothing delivered. She was shutting down. Sakura's eyes widened and her mouth opened as she tried to heave in air but none would come. She reached out her hands to back the people away, but they only crowded her more, not realizing she was having an attack. Finally Ino seemed to understand. "Sakura?"

Sakura coughed and tried to pull in, yet her lungs would not respond. She grew more afraid, tears brimming in her eyes and falling down her face hot and fast. No, no, no, not now. Please not now. She couldn't die _now_. Naruto was in the back of the pack, screaming her name, but he couldn't get to her, and she could feel herself falling. Everyone was calling her name, but one in particular rang out and echoed in her head over and over again.

"Sakura!"

**Chapter 1 end. **

**Reviews are appreciated I suppose. **


	2. Fear

Beep... Beep...

Oh no...

Beep... Beep...

Not again...

Beep... Beep...

Sakura slowly opened her eyes to the tiled ceiling, the squares circling in her vision for a moment before calming down into a steady stream of consciousness, and she blinked in an attempt to focus herself properly. She was... where? Her ears could no longer register sound, ringing like an old TV screen, blaring noisily in her ears until she couldn't breathe again, and someone rushed into the room, yelling all sorts of things she couldn't understand until she blacked out again.

Naruto usually didn't mind hospitals so much. Having been in more than his fair share of fights, most of them leading to stitches if not worse injuries, he was accustomed to the glares of heated florescent lights and the smell of alcohol. It didn't bother him in the least. Sakura, however, was his oldest and dearest friend, and he knew how she was when she was in hospitals. Each time it was always the same, and with Sakura's parents currently out of town on business, he had stayed at the hospital for ten strait hours, refusing to leave until Sakura was woken up and accustomed to the hospital room.

The young blonde sighed, rummaging his fingers through his hair nervously and fighting the panic that had threatened to take control of him. Sakura hadn't had that severe of an attack in a few years at least, and it brought back painful and frightening memories that Naruto would have loved to forget. If things continued like this, if these attacks kept happening, she'd...

"Naruto, you loser."

Naruto jerked his head up, startled blue eyes finding purchase in black ones that loomed at him from across the hall. "Sasuke? The hell?" Naruto stood to his feet, looking his friend up and down as if he were a ghost. "The hell you doing here?"

"Oh, you think you can disappear and no one will notice?" Sasuke said with a raised eyebrow. He stood in front of the stunned Naruto, who (to his secret satisfaction) now stood a full inch shorter than him but the stockier boy still looked imposing next to the thinner Uchiha. Sasuke always sized up Naruto this way every time they met. It was a reflexive action, the direct result of all of their physical altercations. Naruto seemed to mull over the same details but only for a fraction of a second, his head darting nervously toward the hallway, where the patients being held for observation were being kept.

"What are you doing here?" Naruto mumbled under his breath again, sitting in the chair. The question, though he'd just uttered it, seemed to matter little to him. But Sasuke answered it nonetheless.

"It's almost twelve on a school night. I thought you said you were determined to graduate, you idiot. I'm here to get you."

Naruto shook his head. "I'm not leaving until I know Sakura's okay. She hates hospitals."

At this Sasuke rolled his eyes. "Lots of people hate hospitals. That's not your problem. Leave her and come back tomorrow after school. Wouldn't she be more pissed if you skipped out again?"

"You don't get it!" the blonde boy snapped angrily, standing and grabbing Sasuke by the collar of his shirt with enough force to send Sasuke's neck careening backward, cracking it slightly. This amount of aggression from Naruto without further provocation was very rare. "You don't get it, so you shut the fuck up!"

Sasuke instinctively grabbed the other boy's arm, squeezing with all his might in an attempt to get Naruto to let go, but the boy's grip didn't falter an inch. This was serious. More serious than Sasuke had ever seen Naruto before. After a few more moments of intense atmosphere he finally relinquished his grip and so did Naruto, who looked again back down the hall.

"What don't I get?" Sasuke growled angrily. "It was just an asthma attack, right? No big deal." He sat beside Naruto on the bench lining the opposite wall so he could stare Naruto in the face. To his disgruntlement, Naruto didn't pay him the courtesy of looking back, merely continuing his vigil on the hallway.

"Yeah sure." He said the words as if they didn't matter. Sasuke raised an eyebrow at the statement. It implied there was something else going on, something that he wasn't privy to know. Not that he cared much. Sakura was always just one of the girls in his class, nothing more. Naruto, however, seemed ever connected to the pink-haired girl. He constantly hovered around her, appearing at each of her track meets and walking her home on cold nights. If Sasuke hadn't known about Naruto's adoration of another girl, the quiet Hyuuga one, he would have suspected that Naruto was in love with Sakura.

"Sakura is very important to me," Naruto said quietly at length. "You know that."

Sasuke rolled his eyes. "I can't understand why." He crossed his legs and folded his arms, perusing memories he had of the rosette. She had never stuck out to him before. Yes, he'd noted her accomplishments both academically and in track at the high school, but other than that Sakura's interactions with the rest of the class seemed limited to the school grounds at best. He reflected briefly that she had never once attended a field trip or an over night trip despite being apart of many clubs and associations, but her behavior had never been any of his concern until now. More to himself than to Naruto, he said, "She's just a normal girl, isn't she?"

"You don't know shit," Naruto said in a low voice barely loud enough for Sasuke to hear. "And I'm not allowed to tell you shit, so don't bother asking. When she wakes up, I'll go home. And I'll go to school tomorrow. Happy? Now go home."

Sasuke rolled his shoulders back and popped his neck in his seat, staring back at his stubborn friend. Naruto was indeed his only relationship outside of his family, a relationship he'd embarked on at first only to destroy the blonde nuisance. Naruto was everything Sasuke wasn't and instantly that had gained Sasuke's hate. He'd had a lot of that stored up in his body, and Naruto had, when they'd first met, been the perfect release. It was only after beating and being beaten senseless that he realized that Naruto was more than just his punching bag. Naruto was invaluable. Sasuke had debated with himself at home for nearly four hours whether or not to brave the journey to the hospital in the middle of the night to fetch Naruto, and this reception was the last thing he had been expecting. Another characteristic Naruto had that both amused and infuriated was his ability to keep Sasuke on his toes, but in this instance Sasuke did not appreciate the surprise. However, he reasoned, Naruto must have a reason to be so adamant in staying at the hospital.

"Fine," Sasuke said slowly. "Guess there's no choice then." He stood and crossed the distance between himself and Naruto in a few strides, taking the empty seat next beside him. The blonde boy relinquished his gaze on the hallway long enough to make eye-contact with his friend, a wordless "thank you" and "your welcome" passing between them before Naruto leaned back in his chair. Their silence turned from tense to companionable in a matter of moments, which was another trait that Sasuke found invaluable in Naruto: his ability not to dwell.

Another half hour passed in this silence, and Sasuke found himself nodding off despite the book he'd brought with him nestled firmly in his grasp. There had been no word of Sakura, and there seemed to be no nurses about. A low rumbling next to him brought his mind some clarity as he looked next to him to Naruto. The boy was staring down at his stomach.

"Let me guess," Sasuke said, not bothering to finish his sentence. He knew Naruto hadn't eaten since lunch at school, since that would require leaving the hallway. Sasuke dug in his pocked and forked out a couple of bills, holding them out to his friend. "Get something."

Naruto looked apprehensive. "I shouldn't leave..."

Sasuke shook the bills insistently. "There's no reason to think she'll wake up in the next ten minutes. Get something, or I'll _make_ you get something."

Naruto stood, grabbing the bills, but he still hesitated, looking back down the hallway. "If you see the nurse, ask what's going on." With that he left and jogged down the hallway, not intending to take his leisurely time with the task.

Sasuke merely turned his attention back to his book, his eyes, like Naruto's had been doing before, occasionally flicking back down the hallway toward the patient's rooms.

Back again came the swirling visions of light and darkness, blurring, blurring, blurring until finally they stopped being a vortex of only light and dark and began to take on shapes. Sakura could feel her heart thud in her chest, the sound of it high and annoying, ticking away so loudly that her ears felt like they were bleeding from the sound. No, the sound wasn't imaginary, she reasoned, her ever perceptive mind attempting to gain control, but blinding instinct warred with it in an attempt at total control of the body, and instinct was winning for certain as it assisted in making Sakura's vision and hearing clearer.

All at once, everything came into focus. The bed she was in, white, stark, the sheets stiff yet warm because of the layers of heavy fabric. The windows, black with no sunlight, either because the curtains were drawn or it was night outside. She couldn't process which. The blaring florescent light above her, the beeping of the heart monitor, the smell. Oh that smell. It was that smell. All clean, sharp like a knife. A knife. Slitting through her nose and delving into her brain, scrambling it about and pulling it out through her nostrils like the pharaohs of ancient Egypt. Only she was alive for it, and the smell was getting worse and worse with each passing second. The light was far too bright, and the heart monitor... it beeped steadily, but that was even worse. All the horrible thoughts of what would happen if those noises stopped invaded her mind and sent deep spasms of fear up and down her spine. She could hear those beeps getting faster and faster. It would stop at this rate. It would surely stop.

She tore up from the bed in one fluid movement, ripping the IV and patches from both her arms so quickly that blood spurted from the needle prick in her arm and cascaded down to her sheets. The machines in the room blared warnings and alarms, and Sakura screamed with them, clutching her head at the noises. She stumbled and scooted in the bed, falling to the cold tile floor with a thud, and she could feel her heartbeat against the floor. The sound, much like the heart monitor, frightened her beyond true sanity, and all she could think of was escape. Her gym clothes from earlier that day began sticking to her body as she sweat in her fear, the perspiration making her hands slick as she attempted to get to her feet, but she slipped and fell, crashing back to the floor. In that moment a nurse burst into the room, rushing to her side. 

"Miss Haruno, no! You mustn't get up!"

Sakura ignored the woman like she wasn't there, scrambling to her feet and bowling her out of the way as she charged the door. There was no other thought in her mind but escape. She had to get out of that goddam hospital and now!

Sasuke first heard the accelerated beeping of one of the machines down the hall. His ears were sharp from the prolonged silence he'd become accustomed to in the near dead hospital, so he was aware even more acutely when the alarms began to sound. It was something frightening to hear in a hospital and he wondered briefly if he should call for assistance, but in a moment, a young nurse scuttled toward the room where the noise was coming from, entering quickly.

"Miss Haruno, no!" he heard, and his ears perked up. It was the only warning he had for what he would see. In an instant the once silent hospital exploded into a loud noise and a series of scuffles and crashes rocked that isolated room and echoed down the hall. Sasuke on instinct stood to his feet, his book tightly gripped in his hands.

In an instant he saw her, Sakura. She burst from the room in a ball of furious, terrified energy, shooting across the hallway and into the opposite wall with a loud bang, the sound of her skull hitting the plaster. She didn't seem to register the blow, though, her socked feet slipping on the floor as she scrambled to move toward the exit. Toward him. She didn't seem to realize who he was because she didn't even make eye-contact with him, charging for him and looking at him as if he were only an obstacle. His mind blanked and he instinctively moved before her, attempting to bar her path so that the nurse would catch up and somehow restrain her.

Sakura, however, would not be stopped. She was indeed an incredible athlete. He saw her eyes alight with that same determination he'd seen earlier that morning and all at once it froze him into place. It reminded him of, dare he think it, Naruto's eyes when he was engaged in battle with Sasuke. That same determination and gall that had forced Sasuke to finally accept Naruto as not only as an equal but a friend. He couldn't help but stand in awe before it as her muscles gathered in her strong legs, bunching around the calves and thighs before she lunged, jumping so she landed right in front of him before she dropped to her knees and slid under his grip. He only caught a bit of her hair, which slipped teasingly through his fingers before slipping away along with the rest of her.

He spun, watching her bolt for the double doors at the end of the hall, the doors that would lead her to the main lobby and then to the outside world. To the city at night, the busy cars and blaring noises of the metropolis. So dangerous to a girl barely woken up from... whatever had happened to her. In any case, Sasuke lunged after her, be it on instinct or on some other whim, he lunged.

She moved toward the double doors, slowing down slightly in order to grasp them and throw them open, but they opened of their own accord first. Naruto stood in the threshold of the doorway all at once, a cup of instant ramen in one hand, folded chopsticks in the other. He had better reactions than Sasuke, throwing both objects from his hands and grasping Sakura by the shoulders before she could evade him. She struggled for a moment, her hands shaking and her voice a pitiful cry on her lips. "L-let go!"

She struggled again, screaming, but Naruto's grip was pure iron. He held her firmly in place, finally gaining enough purchase on her to crane her neck upwards so her face turned toward him. "Sakura, Sakura!" he said into her face. All at once, she stared into his eyes and collapsed in the next second, clinging to him.

He fell to his knees with her, folding long, strong arms around her shoulders and holding her close to his chest. She shook like a leaf in his grasp. "Naruto," she sobbed over and over again, clutching him. "Naruto..."

"It's okay," he whispered into her hair. "I'm here..."

Sasuke's breathing was labored as he watched his best friend hold the girl. Naruto usually was never one to show such tenderness, ever the jokester. Seeing that expression on his face meant that whatever was happening was serious. Very serious.


	3. Premonition

**Greetings and salutations, as well as thanks for the reviews. Comments and suggestions are also appreciated. **

**Chapter 3.**

Naruto, despite his promise to leave the hospital as soon as Sakura awoke, did not end up leaving until past four-thirty in the morning, with an exhausted Sasuke in tow. Sakura for her part had spend most of the time passed out, first in Naruto's strong arms and then back in the hospital bed. The doctors watched her like anxious hawks, three of them on call constantly and alternating shifts in checking the monitors and wire systems. It was at four in the morning that Sakura's parents, two world-weary individuals that Sasuke was surprised to note looked nothing like Sakura, save her mother had Sakura's hair, arrived and stayed with the girl, practically forcing Naruto home. Naruto had, very reluctantly, agreed to depart, writing a quick note on a piece of paper and slipping it under her pillow when her parents weren't looking. Sasuke noted this with a small tinge of disdain but, as usual, kept his thoughts to himself. They had departed on foot to the nearest train station, and Sasuke calculated that if they moved quickly, they could make the five o'clock train (a train meant to take those normally early risers to work) to Naruto's apartment.

They walked in a silence that seemed all consuming, which was odd for Sasuke and made him shift uncomfortably. Naruto was never so taciturn, and it did not suit their relationship. Sasuke knew well that he was not the most sociable of people, that silence pleased him more than loud, raucous conversation, but Sasuke also knew himself to be a creature of habit. He did not find peace in change, especially when it was in someone as annoyingly consistent as Naruto. Something, though he could not name what, was very, very wrong.

It wasn't until the boys reached the inner city subway system that Naruto finally spoke, slipping his card inside the slot for a passage to the lower east side. "Sasuke," he said quietly, forcing Sasuke to strain to hear over the din of passing subway cars, which he did happily since at least Naruto was speaking. "I don't want you telling _anyone_ about Sakura, okay?"

Sasuke raised a skeptical eyebrow but said nothing, waiting at the platform patiently. His mind ticked away with possible reasons why Naruto was so anxious to cover up a little hospital anxiety coupled with severe asthma. Yes, in a hypothetical situation, if Sasuke were to spout all he had seen, Sakura would be put up with no more than a few concerned comments from friends, nothing serious. This meant, naturally, that there was _something_ more serious underneath the supposedly non-serious symptoms, which was what Sasuke already suspected, but _what_ was beyond him. Naruto remained steadfast in his silence, and Sasuke considered prying further to satiate his curiosity.

But by the look on Naruto's face, the dark-haired boy decided that waiting might be for the best. His friend looked like lead, his face sunken with exhaustion and worry. Occasionally he glanced back the way they'd come as if he was attempting to decide whether to renounce the promise he'd made to Sasuke and go again to the hospital, but he stayed rooted to his place. Sasuke did not enjoy Naruto being so quiet. It was unnervingly unnatural.

"Hey."

Naruto dragged his face back to Sasuke at the sound from his usually taciturn friend, knowing that if Sasuke spoke on his own accord it was for a reason.

"Don't cry."

Naruto stiffened, the words striking him apparently in the eyes, which glistened lightly. "Shut up!"

Sasuke sighed and shrugged his shoulders. "Look, loser. I'll only say this one time: I don't like it when things aren't the way they're supposed to be. There's a system here. I'm like _this_, and you're annoying. So don't change things. Talk. Say something."

It seemed to take Naruto a while to understand exactly what Sasuke was trying to say. When he finally did get it, he turned his head back to staring out at the train tracks before him. They stretched to the left and right as far as the eye could see between concrete hallways. Before both of them was the city skyline, glistening with the lights of buildings that never slept, and the water that reflected it, creating twice the light. Somewhere in that city lay Naruto's apartment, not far from the high school they all attended. Beyond that a little farther was Sakura's house, but she was not there. She still lay in the hospital bed, tubes and wires branching from her arms and chest.

Naruto could not follow his own thought process, shaking his head and settling again into silence.

"Hey."

This was twice that Sasuke had spoken on his own, but this time Naruto didn't hear him, his innards heaving with emotion. Finally the shivers that claimed his heart began to expand like a wave to his skin and bones, causing him to shake.

"_Hey_..." Sasuke's voice was far away in the roaring Naruto heard in his ears. The train, gray and rickety, clamored toward them on the unsteady tracks, the sound much like the waves crashing on the beach but much harsher. The lights on the train's nose flickered and Naruto flinched at the brightness, abruptly crouching on the balls of his feet and holding his hands over his ears.

"Hey!"

Naruto felt an arm across his shoulders but ignored it and did the opposite of what Sasuke had told him to do, hot liquid falling from his eyes. Whether this was him overreacting or not, he felt deep in his gut that today was both the beginning and the end to something, and keeping it in would kill him.

"You loser, don't cry. Come on."

The arms dragged him up and he stumbled onto the train just as the doors opened. None too gently he was shoved in one of the seats and he noted only for a moment that Sasuke stood in front of him, as if shielding Naruto's tears from any unfriendly eyes. Naruto felt grateful that Sasuke didn't look at him. In the next instant, though, his eyes were blurred and he lowered his head, his shoulders shaking. Sakura's terrified green eyes filled his mind, and he heard his own muffled sobs in the sleeves of his uniform shirt. She didn't deserve what was happening to her. She didn't deserve to...

"Naruto," Sasuke's whispered voice came from above.

Naruto took a moment to gather himself, noting briefly that the train was slowing. Sasuke must have been alerting him that their stop was coming up. He whipped his eyes and calmed down, trying to find his normal smile and proving unsuccessful in his attempt.

As the train slowed again, Naruto felt his shoulders being grabbed by his friend, pulling him to his feet and out the doors which opened with high-pitched squeaks. The voices over the radio system alerted those departing that they were on the lower east side and some familiar landmarks. Naruto barely heard it as he was in another train station, Sasuke holding his arm and escorting him. They exited the train station and into the darkness of the lower east side. The neighborhood itself was a little worse for wear, broken and vandalized street signs littered the pathways, and trash scattered about with the cool breeze from the wind. Naruto knew that Sasuke was an expert navigator, that he knew the way to Naruto's apartment, so he allowed himself to float halfway to nothingness, crying unashamedly but wiping his eyes with the back of his hand so he could see and didn't stumble.

"You loser," he heard Sasuke mumble a few times, but Naruto could feel in his heart that that was simply the way Sasuke reacted to emotion. As Sasuke had said before, he was used to Naruto acting a certain way, and this strange display must have upset Sasuke in some form. Naruto knew though, from the way Sasuke didn't let go of his arm and how he made sure Naruto's face was covered from the other pedestrians, assuring Naruto's emotional state was not taken advantage of, that this was Sasuke's way of showing respect through Naruto's tough time. Naruto knew that Sasuke didn't know what else to do in the face of his crying friend.

"We're here," Sasuke finally said, relief in his voice. Naruto glanced up toward his apartment building, a run-down lonely three story complex with bars over most of the windows, and made an attempt to calm himself because soon they'd be inside and he would have to turn on the lights. With the lights on Sasuke would get a good look at his face red from crying, and Naruto didn't know if he could take that kind of humiliation in front of a guy whose sole purpose in life had once been to beat him. Despite the fact that their relationship had grown from mindless fighting with each other to a deep (albeit complicated) friendship, Naruto was never able to get over trying to muster up an impenetrable front for Sasuke.

They climbed the stairs slowly, Naruto having dislodged himself from Sasuke's grip in the hallway before the staircase, and arrived at one of the nicer-looking doors. Naruto dug a hand in his pockets, fishing a small silver key from his pockets, but as if the thing had a mind of its own, it flew from his hands and clinked on the floor. It was only then Naruto realized his hands were shaking.

"Idiot," Sasuke murmured under his breath, bending to pick up the key. Unceremoniously he slid it in the lock and twisted, the door cracking slightly.

Naruto seemed fixated to his place, unable to move. He stared at his shaking hands in silence. Sasuke didn't move either, sensing Naruto was about to do one of two things: calm himself or crack.

"I think she's gonna die," Naruto whispered, clenching his hands into fists. "And there's nothing I can do about it..."

Sasuke didn't understand his line of thought for a moment, but then Sakura's fierce face popped into his mind, and everything about Naruto's statement just seemed ridiculous. Naturally nothing could take down a girl with such a determined face. However, Naruto looked like a ghost, his normally tan face and arms pale and clammy, shaking slightly. Sasuke feared his normally stable companion was losing it.

"Naruto," he said calmly, hoping his stable attitude would spread with his voice. "This is not the time to-"

"Shut _up_!" Naruto abruptly bellowed, spinning toward Sasuke. "I know you're Mr. Cool, and nothing _ever_ makes you lose it, but I... she's my friend, I can't..." He took a deep breath. "You don't _get_ it!"

Sasuke found his reservoir of "cool" diminishing fast, and he allowed volume into his words as he spat, "Then _explain_ it."

"_I can't_!"

Naruto slammed a fist against his door with a loud curse, and the thing nearly flew off its hinges as it crashed open. He stalked inside, fiercely rubbing the scar marks on either side of his face, and Sasuke genuinely felt worry. Naruto never touched those unless something horrifying was stirring around in his mind.

Naruto had long ago told Sasuke he'd gotten those scars when he was just a kid from an unknown man who had killed both his parents. Touching them reminded Naruto of the trauma of that night, and even though the impulse to do so was subconscious, Sasuke could read further into it. If Sakura reminded Naruto of that night, then Naruto was currently dealing with more than just a friend in the hospital. Naruto was reliving things that should not have to be experienced even once. Sasuke had his fair share of nasty stories and experiences, but he had managed long ago to handle them by rejecting every spark of humanity that attempted to seep into his soul. Naruto was a very different kind of animal, though, the polar opposite of Sasuke. He was determined to live a life connected to every person around him, making friends, accepting and dealing with emotion. Sasuke admired his tenacity, but it lead to moments like this. Moments where Sasuke had no idea what to do.

"Naruto..."

"Shit!" Naruto screamed, slamming another fist into his wall. Sasuke followed the blonde into the apartment cautiously.

"Naruto, listen-"

"I can't do shit!" he sobbed, scratching his face before shoving it into his hands. "I couldn't do anything then, and it's the same now! I'll always be too weak to help _anyone_! Shit!" He pounded the wall with every stressed syllable, cursing again and again, the tears now unabashedly shedding rapidly. Sasuke's first impulse was to keep his distance and wait the entire thing out, thinking that was the most comfortable reaction to what he was seeing in his friend, but just as well he knew that Naruto was a person who enjoyed and even needed touches of affirmation, as if hands could keep the mind grounded to the world. Sasuke, though he thought the idea was foolish, took a few steps forward and awkwardly placed a hand on Naruto's shoulder, which had been shaking feverishly. However at his touch, the shaking stopped, and the blonde boy calmed somewhat. Again Sasuke took his time in silence and resumed that waiting was indeed the best course now that Naruto had calmed. In the darkened apartment they stood, both stiff and expectant but for different reasons. Sasuke because of Naruto and Naruto because of Sakura. It was as if Naruto was waiting for the world to end, and likewise Sasuke seemed to be waiting for Naruto to end.

Eventually Naruto's eyes stopped leaking water, the shaking in his hands ceased altogether, and he turned bright blue eyes back to Sasuke's. He let out a breath. "Sorry."

Sasuke now took the opportunity to release his hold. "Whatever." It was the best he could manage.

Naruto sank, leaning heavily against the wall, to the floor. "You can leave now if you want. I'm alright."

At this Sasuke let out something of a snort, going to the tiny kitchen situated just off the side of the entrance way and flicking on the light, the closest light. The apartment, now illuminated, took shape, and Sasuke reflected with some satisfaction that his pestering that Naruto clean the place had worked somewhat. A living room that had recently been trashed with old ramen cups and liters of used milk now sat relatively clean, the couch and TV dusted and looking normal. Sasuke assumed that the changes also stretched to Naruto's bedroom, which lay just off to the right of the living room. The bathroom he could only speculate about. Naruto seemed like the type to forget cleaning such a place.

Sasuke moved across the kitchen and proceeded to pull a box of instant ramen from the pantry, cracking the noodles, and placing them into a bowl. He then took the kettle from another cupboard and filled it with water, placing it on the old stove.

"You're," Naruto said quietly from the floor. "You're not leaving?"

Again Sasuke snorted. "Of course not. And we're _both_ not going to school tomorrow."

Naruto blinked surprised, and his face, for the first time in hours, finally cracked one of those wide smiles. At this Sasuke smirked, content that the idiot would be fine.

Dr. Tsunade Godaime looked at the medical sheets spread out before her, the results of the multiple tests the patient had taken, and furrowed her eyebrow in dismay. They did not look good. She pulled in a shaky breath, and reached into the cabinet of her desk drawer, pulling out a white flask and cup. It was very early in the morning, the results of the tests just having been released to her office, and already she was drinking. She couldn't help it, having been the patient's primary doctor for seventeen years. With results this dismal, if she didn't drink she would burst into tears, a reaction unfit for the senior medical adviser to the Konoha Hospital.

Her assistant Shizune, entered the room quietly, another set of results folded in her thin arms. The girl looked apprehensive, not saying anything for a few moments. "We redid those test, Dr. Tsunade," she said quietly. The results are the same. If you'd like, I could-"

Tsunade held up a pale, elegant hand, silencing the young woman. "There's no need."

Silence permeated the air like a wraith, and Shizune could almost feel it suffocating her. "She's on the donor list, top of it in fact," she whispered. "Something could happen."

At this Tsunade snorted inelegantly and, forgetting the cup altogether, chugged a massive bit of sake strait from the bottle. "Tell her parents the results. Encourage them to release Sakura as soon as possible. She doesn't have much time, and I'm sure she doesn't want to spend it here."

"Y-yes, Tsunade," her assistant said quietly. She closed the door behind her, the handle clicking as it shut. Now Tsunade allowed two tears, one from each eye, to fall from her eyes down to her mahogany desk.

**Chapter 3 end.**

**I realize that this chapter had very little of Sakura in it, but I love the relationship that Sasuke would have with Naruto in this kind of story. I want this story mostly to be from Sasuke's point of view, so fleshing out his relationship with Naruto (which is basically his only human tie as of yet) will be critical in forming his new relationship with Sakura. So bear with it. Thank you.**


	4. Recovery

**Chapter 4.**

Two weeks since Sakura's attack had elapsed essentially without a hitch, the girl reflected with a triumphant grin. She refused even for an instant to think about anything else. For today, she reasoned, she was healthy, and she was happy. And once again, earlier than the sun, she rose and was out on the track field. Before her the high jump loomed, the same height it had been with Ino the day she'd collapsed. She wanted to confirm it for herself. She wanted to confirm she had broken the record from skill not just wild luck. The next track meet was approaching fast, and this one would decide the regional championship. As one of the best on them, she felt the increasing pressure with the date of the meet approaching rapidly.

Sakura had checked herself out of the hospital as soon as she knew she could stand, much to her parents dismay, but she cared little for their constant worrying. It was their nature, a nature she attempted to break from them by practically forcing them to live their own lives and leave her. She forced them to take business trips and spend time with each other. _Because I won't be around forever_, she had said grimly to them. _If you don't live your own lives, and let me live mine, none of us will be happy_. It was that kind of logic that had always stumped them. Sakura couldn't bring herself to think otherwise, though. There was so little time...

She shook her head and, like always, focused on the present.

Now she stood in the mist, sweat clinging to her neck and mouth, staring down the high jump like it was her enemy. In a way, she did fear it. She was terrified that what had happened before would happen again. That she would sail over the high jump, land on her back, struggle to her feet, and then faint from over exerting herself. This fear she reasoned was not irrational. She could very well overstress herself and as a result suffer another attack. But she was always was at risk for an attack. Living in fear did nothing but make her regret, and she would have none of that.

She pointed at the high jump in a challenge and without another thought lunged at the thing with every bit of force in her body. She purposefully let out a scream when she vaulted into the air, as if challenging her body to fall apart. It seemed that her cry frightened gravity into submission as well, for she flew over the red and white bar with ease, her legs kicking up at the exact right moment as her hands spun air with her fingers. She landed with a flop on the mat, and let out a victorious yell, thrusting a hand up into the air. Bolting to her feet, she cartwheeled in her excitement and also as another challenge to her heart, which beat heavily but let out no other protests.

She screamed again, leaping into the air and swearing, she was so happy. It was one thing to break a record once, but repeating it meant she was legitimately capable of reaching such a height, which sent her over the moon.

"Will you calm the hell down!" she heard an exasperated voice bellow across the field at her.

She turned and with bright eyes regarded Naruto as he jogged swiftly towards her. She grinned roguishly. "Naruto! What are you doing here?"

His blonde hair bounced as he approached, wiping it out of his eyes with the back of his hand. Sakura reflected briefly that he looked rather good in the school uniform, despite the auspicious black cape he always wore, along with the black headband. She was surprised that the teachers never harassed him about his unbuttoned shirt or the chain he wore around his neck, but that was just Naruto. He was so charismatic that even the teachers had found soft spots for him.

He looked her up and down with those bright blue eyes warily, and she felt herself cringe. Of all the people in the world she worried, she felt the worst for Naruto. "Are you... okay?" he asked, rubbing the back of his head nervously.

It was the start of most of their conversations recently. Naruto would survey her, study each movement until he was sure she was fine, and then he would confirm it verbally. It was a system that sometimes made Sakura want to cry, but she put up with it because it was Naruto. From her parents she would get angry, from the teachers she would be embarrassed, but from Naruto she would lower her head and nod slowly. She looked up at him, marveling at his height. He was nearly a full head taller than she was, which was such a difference from their middle school years. She could think back to a time where she had been the taller.

"You worry too much," she said with a shrug. "I'm just gearing up for the track meet next week. You gonna be there?"

He snorted, mock offended. "Of course! Someone's gotta lead your fan club!"

Now it was her turn to snort, shoving him affectionately. "Oh, yeah, right, my fan club... I wish!"

"Hey, you've been getting pretty popular, since..." He stopped, lowering his gaze. "Since freshman year, when you started coming to school regularly."

Sakura blinked rapidly to stop from tearing up. Freshman year had been the beginning of the biggest transition of Sakura's life, and thinking about it would bring back the emotions that the time entailed. She refused to allow them to take control, worried about her face reddening for the rest of the day. It wouldn't be long until school would start. She didn't want to look like she'd been crying. That would give her much more unwanted attention, which she was unfortunately receiving a lot more of lately. With her collapse, her friends had begun to treat her like Naruto did, warily and as if she would break at a moment's notice. After several days of recklessly running about in front of all of them on the track field and assuring them repeatedly that she was fine, she finally convinced them that it'd simply been a rare asthma attack. Ino had proven to be the most reluctant to give up the constant worrying, but now she seemed more like herself, and things were beginning to shift back to normalcy.

Sakura, however, could not account for the feeling of being watched that always crawled over her. She couldn't help but feel that there were eyes on her constantly, hovering about her every move, and no matter how many times she looked over her shoulder, she couldn't place the feeling with actual proof. She concluded at length that she was losing her mind.

"Are you gonna change for school?" Naruto asked, walking back to the locker rooms. Sakura hurriedly gathered her track gear and followed, almost nicking his heels with her shoes.

"I figured I ought to take a shower," she replied, a little disinterested with the small talk, her thoughts running over each of her classes and wondering if she should do some last minute cramming for a history test she had in third period.

"Shower?" Naruto asked.

"Well, I worked out hard today. I'm all nasty."

Naruto laughed. "You're such a girl!"

She reeled and punched him hard in the arm. "You jerk, DUH I'm a girl! Idiot!"

"Well I didn't think you'd care about being all nice-smelling and crap!" he protested, rubbing the sore limb. "Don't athletes not care about that?"

"Personal hygiene is not crap, you idiot!" She punched him again, but this time she was laughing.

"Aw, come on, Sakuraaaa," he whined, dodging fists she threw at him halfheartedly.

They stepped off the track field and onto one of the concrete paths of the school. Konoha High had one massive building that stretched at least a block made out of sturdy red brick. Windows lined either side of the building, allowing plenty of light into the narrow corridors. In the early morning air, the school looked almost regal. Sakura and Naruto continued down the hall to the dimly lit locker hall, where the students were to place their shoes and put on their slippers, allowing them to roam the school freely with no chance of getting it dirty. The pair chatted amiably while Naruto switched out his shoes and Sakura grabbed her pleated uniform skirt along with a white shirt and black tie from her locker.

"Well I plan to be first in my class," Sakura said in exasperation at Naruto's question, which went something like "How can you stand to be so smart?". "Honestly, Naruto, you're smart too once you put your mind to it."

He waved a hand dismissively. "I leave the smart stuff to Sasuke. That jerk can be clueless sometimes, but he usually tutors me when I need help."

Sakura's heart skipped a beat at the mention of the Uchiha. She tried not to think further on the boy, but her mind ran away with her, fantasies swarming through her mind before she could stop them. "Oh, yeah?" she commented, trying to appear nonchalant.

"Yeah, and if you get past the initial moodiness, he's not so bad."

"Hmm..." She swallowed a lump of excitement that had scrambled up her throat and tried to prevent herself from smiling giddily. She couldn't deny the allure the taciturn Uchiha presented. She couldn't quite place it. As far as she knew he was not the kind sort. There was nothing endearing about his character, nothing redeeming in his personality. It had to be that self-assured attitude that boarder lined arrogance and, of course, that body and face he had. Angelic and attractive, he was perfection itself it seemed. She ground her teeth against the second bout of fantasies that warmed her chest and decided that the shower she would take would be cold.

"U-um.."

Sakura spun at the familiar voice of Hinata, who not surprisingly had crept up as silent as a mouse.

Hinata was an adorable sort of girl, unbearably shy with her head always tilted downward, but Sakura could admire Hinata's tenacity at always approaching Naruto. Despite the boy towering over her and his reputation as a fighter, Hinata's only reaction to his blatant and clumsy acts was a light blush that adorned her pale cheeks. Her crush on Naruto had persisted all throughout freshman year to their current junior year, and Sakura wished for a moment that Naruto was less dense.

Speaking of the devil, Naruto kept chatting away, not having heard Hinata's small voice, but a slap from Sakura silenced him into turning his head. "Oh, Hinata!" he cried upon seeing her. "What's up!" He leaned casually against the lockers, a crooked grin on his face.

Hinata swallowed hard, her face reddening a touch. "Oh, I... Um... Good morning," she said so quietly Sakura barely heard. Hinata nervously tucked a strand of her long hair behind her ear and looked up to Naruto's baby blues. For a moment neither of them said anything, the air growing thick, but they didn't seem to notice. Hinata stared upwards to Naruto, while the blonde boy stared down. They seemed entranced with each other, the rest of the world leaving them.

Sakura took that as her cue to get the hell out. "I gotta go. Naruto, make sure to walk Hinata to class, alright?"

Naruto seemed to be eying Hinata like she was either prey or predator, his gaze so fixated on her that he didn't respond to Sakura's leaving, save for a gentle wave goodbye. Sakura got out of their line of sight but slowed just long enough to hear a tidbit of their conversation. "N-Naruto," Hinata whispered. "I... I made you something." There was a brief pause of shuffling. "It's a bento. I hope you don't mind... I notice you don't... don't eat too much at school..."

Sakura blushed and smiled at the idea of the young Hyuga girl making lunch for her little idiot friend, but decided it was best to leave them be for now. She hoped Naruto would tell her what happened later.

Sakura made her way to the locker rooms in silence, noting that she had a very limited amount of time to get that cold shower in and that forgoing the thing entirely might be the best choice. She had luckily brought a small flask of shower mist spray, which would improve her body odor. She felt much more refreshed once she changed into a clean school uniform as well, slipping her gym clothes into her backpack underneath her books. She forgot to get take a once over in the mirror as she left the gym bathroom. She made her way past the gym and into the main school building, strolling slowly down hallways illuminated with huge windows. The sun was fully up, it now being past seven in the morning, and as Sakura ascended the large staircase to the second floor of the building, heading toward the library, she basked in the warmth.

"My, my look at Sakura this morning."

The voice made Sakura cringe slightly, and she spun to face a shock of red hair and an annoyed face. "Ah, Karin," Sakura said under her breath.

Karin was an intensely popular young woman, claiming a great deal of attention from both the under and upper class men, and she was quite pretty. She wore her uniform with stylish accessories, and she had an air of intelligence and refinery about her. Not to mention Karin was no simpleton: the girl was almost top of her class and almost the best athlete of the school. The word _almost_ being put into play because of Sakura. Freshman year, the year Sakura began attending school religiously, Sakura had begun to participate in every extra curricular activity she could get her hands on, including joining the Brain Bowl team and the track team, teams which Karin had dominated until Sakura had stepped in. Instantly talented in both intelligence and athletics, Sakura had outshone Karin in every event, and Karin did not take too kindly to being put down. Not that Sakura had done it intentionally. Sakura had had her own reasons for trying her best in everything she did, but Karin didn't know them. So now and always, it seemed they would be rivals, much to Sakura's distaste.

Karin adjusted her black rimmed glasses a tinge, curling her lip in a sneer. "Sakura, you look awful today. Close to another fainting spell, are we?"

Sakura stiffened, struck. Karin somehow always knew where to hit.

The red head grinned devilishly, folding her arms across her chest and Sakura noted with distaste how the girl's uniform shirt, purposefully short, came up and revealed a bit of pale skin. "I'll admit, whatever you did, it sure made you the talk of the school." Karin took two steps, dangerously close to Sakura. She was at least five centimeters superior when it came to height. "Oh, and you'd better be ready for the track meet next week. Whatever record you broke, I'll be the one to shatter it, you got that?"

Sakura was never one to be intimidated by meaningless threats, but Karin's proximity made her heart beat a little too rapidly for her taste. Karin was a much larger, more intimidating girl, and Sakura was a born pacifist. If Karin ever got violent, Sakura wasn't sure she would fight back. Not that she was not capable, she knew she was. But with her condition, she found it such a hard prospect whenever confronted with the idea of harming another person, even if it was Karin.

Sakura, however, did not back down. She shook her head. "Either way, I don't see how it matters, Karin. For now, I've broken the record, so you'll have to deal with it." Sakura admitted to herself that the air of smugness she allowed in the comment was not necessary, but abruptly she was beginning to feel pride over having broken the record. A pride she quickly shoved down, not wanting to instigate anything with Karin. "If you'll excuse me..." she said quietly, and she made to walk past the taller girl, but Karin would have none of it.

She spun and grabbed Sakura's wrist with a slapping sound echoing across the hall and sought to bring the pink-haired girl closer, but Sakura twisted violently on instinct to get the other girl away from her. With such an unexpectedly harsh motion, Karin released Sakura in surprise, which threw Sakura off balance. They were standing close to the stairwell, Sakura took three steps back in an attempt to gain her balance, but all at once she was confronted with nothing but air under her feet. She gasped, falling backward, and Karin let out a cry of surprise, trying to reach out for her but missing by an centimeter. Sakura could feel herself fall and wondered at the irony of it. Her frightened mind had enough time to think simply, _This is not how I was expecting to go._

But abruptly from behind strong arms, one gripping her left shoulder, the other looping around her waist, grabbed her forcefully and brought her teetering body to a stop. She attempted to help the arms, gaining her balance and reaching out a hand at nearly the same time to grab one of the hand rails, so the inertia of her fall didn't throw both of them off balance. She stood in silence for a moment, a bit off balance, but the arms quickly escorted her up the stairs and onto firm ground. Karin, for once, was completely silent.

Sakura closed her eyes for a moment, panic beginning to wash away as she took long, slow breaths. She couldn't see her rescuer, but she murmured softly, "Thank you, thank you," before wiping a hand over her face to clear away some sweat. The fact that she'd narrowly escaped a potentially fatal accident, she took time to also thank God and whoever else was out there for her survival. But her rescuer well deserved something more. She said another thank you, calming herself, and finally opened her eyes.

She was stunned to meet Sasuke Uchiha's annoyed-looking face.

"Ah," she let out quietly, unresponsive for a few seconds. The only thing she could think of was how large his hands were as they completely enveloped her shoulders, steadying her, and then how the absence of them (when he jerkily removed them) was not appreciated. "Oh, I'm..." She stammered a little, "I'm sorry." Sakura seemed ready to wince at his remarkably pissed-off expression and was ready to apologize again, when she realized that it wasn't directed at her. Sasuke was looking at the other girl, his jaw set in anger.

Karin as well seemed at a loss for words for the first time in her life, but Sakura only had a moment to realize this before the red-head walked briskly away, her face almost as crimson as her hair.

"It- It was an accident," Sakura said quietly, lowering her head to stifle a blush. The entire situation was embarrassing. And to have it all witnessed by Sasuke was the most mortifying of all. Surely she couldn't at least appear graceful in front of the best looking guy in school!

Sasuke seemed content to say nothing at all, though he looked slightly perturbed.

Sakura tried not to let the empty silence intimidate her, but the Uchiha's presence was enough to throw her off even under normal circumstances. The fact that her heart was still pounding from her near fall did not help either. She had to calm down before things got out of hand. Escape seemed to be the only option. "Thank you again," she said, bowing and turning to leave.

His voice stopped her. "The high jump."

She turned slowly toward him, eyes wide.

"You broke the record." It was a statement, nothing more. There seemed to be no way to respond to it either. She simply nodded toward him, waiting expectantly.

He didn't seem to like the idea of talking again, but she saw him square his shoulders toward her, as if riling himself up for a conversation. "It was impressive."

She couldn't believe he was even talking to her. She had never spoken more than a few loose sentences with him, if even that. There was always the occasional "Good morning," and "goodbye," but nothing like this. In fact, besides Naruto, Sakura couldn't remember ever seeing Sasuke have a conversation with anyone. She wasn't about to let this opportunity pass her up.

"I..." she offered slowly, "I heard you were nominated to be senior class president."

He nodded, his eyes flickering toward one of the windows and staring out of it. Sakura followed his gaze, the view of the front of the school glowing orange in the early morning sunlight. Other students slowly began filing in, bustling together in groups or sticking it out solo, wearing the KHS uniform that matched her and Sasuke's.

"If you run," she said finally, and she noted how he turned directly toward her, "I'll vote for you. You seem like the kind of person who... would like people, if you got to know them..."

She bowed her head to hide a blush and purposefully did not look at him as she turned away, walking quickly down the hall.

Sasuke watched Sakura Haruno walk steadily away from him and puzzled at himself. He couldn't explain why he noted how her skirt moved as she walked or how the teasing tresses of her hair caught the morning light. He simply stood and stared.

**Chapter 4 end.**

**I realize I may be tantalizing some of you, but I think that things would happen gradually in Sasuke's heart, without him even realizing it. I also wanted to take the time to introduce the characters of Hinata and Karin, who will come back again soon. Apologies, I'm certain I'll add some fluff very soon. No worries. **

**In any case, any questions or comments, feel free to submit. **


	5. Hamlet

**Chapter 5.**

Sasuke allowed himself the very rare privilege of not paying attention in class that day, in favor of staring out the window, letting his thoughts wander. He did not know the material that Mr. Iruka was going over, he did not know what was even going on in his next class, and he did not attempt to bring himself to give a good God damn. He was bored and tired with school. He lived a very tedious, orderly life, but found himself often times daydreaming, looking out the windows to beyond the school's gates to the world that lay beyond. The city loomed ahead like a magnet, drawing his iron soul to its calloused dark buildings and people. In the city there were seedy enough places he had visited, looking to dampen his restless heart. He could not help thinking that school was such a tiny part of the world. That he was destined to get out of this place, and _now. _

_Itachi had..._

Sasuke clenched his jaw. Itachi had graduated a full two years before normal kids, excelling in everything the school had thrown at him, and Sasuke couldn't stand that he was forced to wait, unable to skip grades as Itachi had. Konoha High had adopted a new policy on allowing grades to be skipped, and forgo-ed it to "allow teenagers the full time in high school to become fully developed adults." What a load of horse shit.

Sasuke quelled his anger and calmed himself, resuming his gaze outside the window. He noted the landscape of the high school, how the colors were slowly changing, the very tips of the leaves a rustic orange despite the fact that it would be another month before the full onslaught of fall approached. The weather was hot out, but soon fall then winter would arrive. Sasuke would never admit it, but he dearly loved winter. Everything was cold and white and clean, not that he was a neat freak, but he enjoyed it when the snow covered the ground in thick sheets and he could watch his feet make tracks in it. The sensation, he thought slowly, was like leaving a small legacy. In winter, whoever walked the path behind him would know that he had been there, that he had made his mark. Sasuke enjoyed the idea of imprinting something long-lasting on the world. Itachi had...

As the heir to the Uchiha empire and the future leader of Konoha's business world, he would certainly be making marks his entire life. Sasuke cursed being born in second, unable to take over the family business...

Outside the window, the summer wind whipped, scattering leaves from their branches and onto the track field. The junior class girls were having gym class, like they did every two days, running about the track in their gym shorts, practicing on the pole-vault, and the...

The high jump.

A tiny flash of pink hair darted across Sasuke's vision, and he watched with interest as it flew up into the air, spinning dynamically, then flopping down on the blue landing pad. The high jump's pole did not move, it had not been touched, despite being perched so high. Sasuke doubted that even he could reach such a height.

The pink hair bobbed a bit, jumping and whooping with joy, as the owner of the pink head high-fived another girl before setting the pole at a slightly lower level, accommodating to the others. Sasuke wished ruefully that he hadn't been spaced out so that he could have watched sooner, could have maybe gotten a glimpse of those thunderously intense eyes. He remembered briefly those eyes' intensity back at the hospital, how they had regarded him as nothing but an obstacle that was easily overcome. The owner of the eyes had since not even addressed that day to anyone, including all her inquiring friends at lunch and during class. She also seemed to have forgotten that he had even been at the hospital, waiting for her to awake with Naruto. It was only natural, he assumed. She hadn't been in the best state of mind, and their encounter had been very brief, but that didn't make it any less disappointing. Even earlier that day she had hardly said more than a few phrases, despite the fact that he'd caught her. How annoying. How... disappointing.

Wait, disappointing?

Sasuke blinked, surprised at himself. He sighed and leaned back in his chair.

The action was enough to catch the attention of Mr. Iruka, who stopped his lecture and lowered the book in his hand to chest level. "Is there a problem, Mr. Uchiha?"

Sasuke abruptly felt the gazes of all of the students in the room and straightened. "Not at all."

Iruka smiled kindly. "Then perhaps you would not mind solving the next problem."

Sasuke got from his seat, walking to the front of the board. Before him was a math equation, something to do with the quadratic equation, and he barely thought as he wrote the answer beside the problem on the board, not even bothering to write everything out, doing all the calculus in his head.

Iruka's eyebrows raised, impressed. "Very good. Have a seat."

Sasuke did have a seat and looked again out the window. He muttered a vulgar curse under his breath as the girls were preparing to leave the track field. The bob of pink hair was already gone, and he swallowed uncomfortably at the knot that began to form in the pit of his stomach.

Advanced Placement Literature was the final class of the day, the block scheduling dictating that English, normally an hour class, would be extended for an hour and a half, which Sasuke was not the least bit pleased with. The weather outside the classroom began to dim and darken with rain clouds, not uncommon in Konoha's unruly summer weather, but the idea of walking home in the rain did not appeal to him. Not to mention Naruto had apparently been caught in a scuffle with one of the bigger kids on the basketball court, which landed the damn nuisance in detention which meant that Sasuke _had_ to pay attention in English today to take careful notes that Naruto could copy so he wouldn't fall behind.

That loser was going to pay.

The class began to fill quickly as the minutes to the late bell ticked away slowly yet surely, then it rang and everyone was silent.

Sasuke had nearly forgotten that they were studying _Hamlet. _He had read the play a many times before, so he was already familiar with what they were going over that day, the second scene of the first act, describing the character of the evil King Claudius who had murdered his brother for the throne in cold blood. Sasuke had once in his life poured mercilessly over the underlying themes of _Hamlet_, how they centered around blood thirsty vengeance, and the idea appealed to him greatly. Was there a better life than to throw yourself into the screaming passion that was blood-lust? It made sense to claim retribution when someone wronged you. And Sasuke knew the feelings of loss and hatred that stemmed within Hamlet. When Sasuke was younger he had read the play over and over again, in an attempt to keep his vigil in getting his own vengeance. Reading _Hamlet_ again brought memories back that Sasuke felt both mad joy and fear at remembering. Not since he had befriended Naruto had those memories come so quickly, and for the hour and a half that Kakashi spent lecturing he both mindlessly scrawled the notes in a language that Naruto could understand and poured over the idea of vengeance. Sasuke knew the ending of _Hamlet_, that the character Hamlet died in his own blood and the blood of his evil uncle, and again Sasuke did not mind such an ending. Even if he died, if he could feel the satisfaction of retribution. It was a fitting fate.

He could feel the satisfyingly wicked tendrils of his deep-seeded hatred wash through him as old wounds stung in the still red corners of his heart. It felt good not to feel pain but feel the cold, calculating plans that spun through his mind. Plans to kill. They comforted him and made him feel powerful, even alive. It was wonderful not to feel weakness. Emotions that had started to form in his heart were easily batted away by cold, malicious strength. There was no pain in being powerful. There was nothing that made him cry. It was wonderful. He was cold and deadly, and even Naruto could die for all he cared. He wouldn't bat an eye.

The bell rung, the day was ended. The rest of the students swarmed around him to each other, some of the girls approaching him shyly, trying to talk with him. He blatantly ignored them and walked out of the room.

He rounded halls, not seeing but feeling his way to the class that would hold Naruto still in detention. He went there only because he said he was going to be there, nothing more. With the temporary mindset of a merciless avenger, Sasuke cared little for Naruto. It was the only thing that stung him whenever he was in the mood for blood, that his deep and constant friendship with Naruto could be so easily forgotten when the idea of vengeance consumed him. But he pushed that thought from his mind just as swiftly as it had come. He would simply drop the notes off with Naruto, decline any offers Naruto made to "hang out" and return home so he could sit alone _in the house it had all happened in_. He would sit in that house, still filled with the screams from _that night,_ and brood for hours and hours, until exhaustion would claim him. He was prepared for the consequences of such behavior, that he would be moody for days and weeks and that only a fist fight (more than likely with Naruto) would be the only thing that would bring him back. He was ready for it. He wanted it.

Thunder rolled in the distance outside the school.

"No, you dork!"

He heard her voice from halfway down the corridor, slightly muffled by other student's voices down the opposite hall and also by Naruto's yelp.

"Hey, that hurt!"

"Oh, quit whining! You're lucky I came all the way here just for you!"

"Well, if you're gonna hit me, then I wish you wouldn't have!" the phrase was muffled by the blonde boy's raucous laughter. The sound of shifting desks echoed down the hall, and Sasuke approached the open door of the detention room. As far as he could tell it was empty except for Naruto and his companion, who leaned over his desk from a standing position. She hovered around the boy, as he read from a small book perched in between two fingers of each hand. "That- thou..." He was obviously struggling. "Thoust?"

The girl, shaking her head in disbelief, her pink hair shimmering in sunlight peering behind the clouds through the open windows, laughed. Her smile was bright and reached up to her flickering green eyes, and Sasuke watched it. He watched it and felt his heart beat a little faster. It warmed. She said, "It's English! How can you not read this?"

"_This _is English?" Naruto said incredulously. "Bull shit."

Sakura scoffed, thumping a hand to her forehead. "It's your fault you got detention, you dork. And didn't you say you liked _Hamlet_?"

Sasuke took the opportunity, when Naruto stopped to think about her question, to sidle up beside the open doorway, pressing his back to the wall so he was comfortable while he listened in. From his position, if he turned his head very slightly, he could see them without them seeing him. He tried to deny his interest in the conversation but found it was easier not to think of it at all. He just listened

"Well," Naruto said slowly to her question, "I did like it, before we actually started _reading_ it. At the beginning, Kakashi pulled out all these slides, with pictures, and..." he blushed. "And I saw Ophelia. Kakashi said that she was often compared with flowers, and I guess I thought of you... It made me want to at least see what it was about..."

Sakura looked at him with quizzical eyes before promptly bursting into laughter. "What?" she asked, holding her stomach in mirth. "Oh, I hope to _God_ I'm not like her! Jeez, Naruto, do you know what you're saying?"

"Hey, don't be like that!" he whined, standing to his feet to try to clamp a hand over her laughing mouth. "And what's wrong with Ophelia? She's really pretty, and she's Hamlet's girlfriend. Not a bad gig right?"

Sakura was wiping tears of merriment from her eyes. "Oh yeah," she agreed. "The whole dying thing is no big deal at all."

Naruto's eyes widened. "What, dying? She dies?"

"Well, yeah... Naruto, she goes crazy. She drowns in a river."

The boy looked like he'd been struck. "Well, what about Hamlet then? Wasn't he sad?"

"I don't think he minded really," she said, frowning while thinking. "From what I can remember, he was more concerned with revenge at the time. He dies soon anyway, after he kills his uncle."

"W-what? I... really?" Naruto looked shaken. "So... so the whole play... it's just about revenge? Hamlet... he's a guy who abandons his girlfriend, and his friends, and him mom, all for revenge?"

"Well..." Sakura didn't know how to put it simply. "It's more complicated than that, but I guess, sort of. I mean, the world kind of turned against him..."

Sasuke nodded his consent as well. That's how he'd read into _Hamlet_. He was a man who brooded, and thought out his plans carefully, and verified, and then when he was fit to bursting, he made his plans become a reality, choosing revenge. It was a destiny Sasuke could relate to. With his attitude as foul as the circling clouds above the roof, he wanted such a fate.

Naruto abruptly took the _Hamlet_ book from the desk and slammed it on the floor, jerking Sasuke's attention back to the classroom. "Fuck this book!" He quickly gathered the rest of his things, slinging his cloak about his shoulders angrily. "And fuck Hamlet too! Stupid son of a bitch!" He made to storm from the room, completely enraged.

Sakura lunged after him, grabbing his arm. "Woah, woah, wait Naruto! What are you doing?"

"I can't stand that!" the boy cried, and Sasuke winced slightly at the pain in his voice. Naruto knew everything about Sasuke. _Everything._ To Naruto, this was more than just the ending of a story in a book. "How could that _bastard _do it? He'd abandon everything! His family, his country, his girlfriend, even his best friend for revenge! What a fucking _bastard!_"

He moved again, trying to get past Sakura, but she held him firmly by one arm. "Hang on, you stupid!" she yelled at the top of her voice, which somehow made him stop in his tracks. "You think that if that was _all_ Hamlet was about, that it would have survived all these years? You think it's all just about revenge?"

"Well, what _is_ it about then?"

Another roll of thunder rumbled in the distance. It was getting darker outside, but no rain.

Sasuke swallowed the lump in his throat when silence echoed throughout the hallways like a noise all its own. It almost swallowed him whole, but he heard Sakura's voice, just barely above a whisper. "It's about finding yourself..." She took a breath. "Hamlet... at the beginning of the play, Hamlet didn't know who he was. He acted like a child, and a brat, and a coward, but when things started to change for him, when he knew he had to get atone for what had happened to his father, he started to change himself. He had to overcome his cowardice and truly find himself in order to kill his father's murderer. That's why he began to abandon things in his old life. He didn't know what else to do. It was because he didn't know who he was that he ended up forsaking the good things in his life for revenge..."

"But in the end," Naruto said bitterly, "it all comes down to revenge. That's all he wants."

Sasuke closed his eyes, grimacing.

"No." Sakura's voice was like cool water. "Hamlet dies of a poisoned blade... it's an analogy for the poison that vengeance had done to his heart. Vengeance does nothing more than weaken and kill someone, just like it did Hamlet. In the end, the fact that Horatio, Hamlet's best friend, is there is what saves Hamlet's soul. If Horatio had not been so loyal, Hamlet's final moments would have been for nothing... He wouldn't have found himself at all. But as it is, the story is about Hamlet finding himself, and realizing that revenge can only kill. It can't make anyone stronger, or bring back the dead."

Sasuke's eyes opened and he stared out the wide window stretching before him. A northern wind blew through the trees and began to scatter the heavy air. A sliver of sunlight defiantly poked through the swirling clouds.

Naruto as well seemed to calm down, turning back to Sakura. He smiled. "I... really like Horatio," he said finally. They both stared at each other before bursting into laughter.

"Oh shit!" Naruto exclaimed, looking at the clock perched on the wall of the classroom. "I gotta go meet Sasuke! He's gonna be fucking pissed that I'm late!" He slung his bag over his shoulder and bolted from the classroom before Sakura could say another word.

She looked to the floor briefly, at the thrown _Hamlet_ book, which lay opened in the middle, the pages flicking back and forth with the wind from the open window. She hurriedly picked it up and bolted out the door. "Wait, Naruto!" But he was already too far down the hall to hear her. "Dang it," she mumbled, looking down at the book.

"I can give it to him."

Sakura let out a startled cry, turning around quickly. "Sasuke!" she exclaimed, looking him up and down like he was a ghost. Sasuke enjoyed her surprise, pleased he could be so stealthy in broad daylight. "Oh... sorry, again." She winced at herself, and he felt uncomfortable that she was embarrassed.

"I liked it."

She looked up at him, not quite understanding.

"Your analysis on _Hamlet,_" he clarified. "I'd never thought of it that way before. It was well done." It was. What a way to think of it... finding yourself... Sasuke had never thought about the type of person he was. It had never crossed his mind. Sakura, standing before him with her eyes bright and curious, looked like she knew herself. She looked like the kind of person who was strong because she knew about the hearts and feelings of herself and others. Just like she did with Naruto, soothing him when he was upset. Even without her knowing it, she had done the same for Sasuke.

She looked down and blushed, holding out the book to him without meeting his eyes. "It was just what I thought," she said quietly. He took the book from her hands, noting how she had callouses around her palms and fingers and somehow being pleased by it. They were not idle hands; they were used well and often. And they were warm as they brushed his fingers.

She looked down the hall where Naruto had gone off. "You'd better hurry to the gate. Naruto will be sad that you're not there."

Sasuke allowed himself a grin, which pulled at the ends of his mouth, exposing a tiny bit of teeth. It felt unnatural but not unpleasant. "That idiot..." He turned back to Sakura, still feeling the smile hover about his mouth, as if since it had finally gotten there, it didn't want to leave. The only response he felt from her was the ever so slight widening of her eyes, which again pleased him. He liked the way her face was naturally expressive, unlike his. She seemed rather easy to read, another plus.

"Well..." She looked down and shifted. "I'm going then. Got club..."

He cocked his head to the side and asked before he even thought about it, "What club?"

"Oh, it's technically the music club..." She blushed slightly. "I'm trying to learn how to sing..."

_Super star athlete, top of her class in grades _(except for him) _pretty, and she's learning to sing?_

"You do everything."

She grinned, nodding furiously. "Time's short!" She seemed to realize what she had just said and bowed a tiny bit. "I gotta go, tell Naruto I said bye, okay?"

Sasuke stared at the empty space where she had once occupied. _Time's short..._

He wrinkled an eyebrow. Nonsense.

**Chapter 5 end.**

**Well, I thought it would be wonderfully ironic if we all looked at Sasuke's life in comparison to Hamlet's. Vengence was such a noble pursuit in those times, wasn't it? As for _why_ Sasuke wants revenge, this is left intentionally omitted. I'm leaving myself some holes to fill. I don't like taking steps back unless their secret steps to go forward. In other words, I don't do the flash back thingy. Anyway, Sasuke is a person who is set in one way. I do things realistically. **

**Oh, and I plan on publishing another story. (Another Sasusaku fic, called Changeling.) It's a modern day, high school fic with a nice twist. I've gotten a few chapters written but none posted. So yeah, there you go.**


	6. Discovery

**Chapter 6. **

**Special thanks to **SasoLOVE111 **for the questions. The only reply I have is to keep reading. It's all in my brain, waiting for you to read it.**

Sasuke didn't quite know what to do with himself lately. Days and days had passed, and he'd assumed that his mind would get over thinking about... well, he wouldn't think of it anymore. He was tired of it. He felt like his brain was an endless carousel, constantly running about over and over again in circles, and his chest would contract painfully at times, and he would stop whatever he was doing ( reading, walking, breathing) to attempt to find out _what the hell_ was going on with his body. He told no one of his ailments, convincing himself that they would go away in time.

They didn't.

His eyes made it worse. Wherever she went, they would follow her. They would narrow and widen and react to whatever she did, whatever she said. It was maddening! Yet addicting... She was fascinating. She mostly ignored him, oblivious to his eyes (He was very discreet), and continued with her life. Every day she spent hours before school on the track field, jumping higher and higher, running faster and faster. She would cheer herself on, talk to herself, sweat and pant and groan at her tired limbs but never stop. Sasuke began to notice the muscles in her legs narrow and become more sleek. Her chest would heave up and down, her sweat making her shirt often times cling to her pale skin. He wouldn't avert his eyes. They held more dominance over anything now. They were the commanders of his body. His damn eyes!

They even watched her in the only class they had together: Traditional Japanese. It was a foreign language that Sasuke had hated for a long time, but lately he couldn't find a class he looked more forward to. Evil, evil eyes... She was most of the time very lively in the class, sitting next to one of the girls (the blonde one) that Sasuke couldn't remember the name of. Her Japanese accent was flawless, her words unhesitating, and she had no qualms about helping other students who didn't understand the lesson that day. Sasuke noticed that the teacher sometimes didn't have to say anything at all, leaving everything to _her_ careful explaining. At least that gave him an excuse to stare some more...

He was staring even now as Sakura stood during class to turn in a bit of work she had missed while being absent. His rebellious eyes, against his will, watched her skirt sway from side to side as she walked, how it rode up ever so slightly as she bent to lower her paper on the teacher's desk. Sasuke clenched his jaw and lowered his eyes, inwardly grimacing at himself. _This_ was a problem...

He looked up again, grateful that she was at least sitting down, hunching slightly in her desk. _Odd._ Sakura was a track star. Hours of constant exercise kept her posture very strait and erect most of the time. He then noted how her hand moved very, very slowly as she wrote notes in a small binder. When the blonde girl leaned over and asked her something, there was a slow and slurred response.

Sasuke heard the blonde girl ask quietly, "Sakura, are you alright?"

The reply was something he couldn't quite make out, but it did cause the blonde girl to tense slightly. She stood to her feet. "Miss Kurenai, can I go get Sakura a drink?"

The teacher blinked a few times, obviously surprised by such a request, but agreed in a soft voice. Sasuke had recently began to notice that the teachers, whenever Sakura requested anything, were always friendly and obliging to the pink-haired girl. Sasuke had first assumed that the reason behind such special treatment must be centered around the fact that Sakura was such a good student or the fact that she was a great athlete, but a lurking suspicion told him otherwise. Sasuke could feel a different type of atmosphere surrounding their looks to the girl, and they had nothing to do with simple admiration. Even now Kurenai looked to Sakura with a look that suggested she was holding her breath, as if waiting for something to happen.

Sasuke flicked eyes back to Sakura, settling into his typical posture to stare at her, with his hands over his mouth and a bored expression on his face. Sakura's head had drooped slightly onto her desk, her hands under her face and her hair spilling like water over her shoulders lazily. The rise and fall of her shoulders was so slight, Sasuke wondered for a moment if she were breathing at all. Sasuke stared hard at her face, which was serene and relaxed, and for a moment wondered if the girl even realized she had fallen asleep.

Kurenai must have come to the same conclusion. "Sakura, no sleeping in my class."

There was no response. A few other students raised their heads from their work to look at Sakura, who did not stir.

"Sakura?"

Sasuke thought for a moment that Kurenai's voice was too faint for the sleeping girl to hear.

Kurenai again thought the same, raising her voice. "Sakura!"

Sasuke jerked his head up. There was evident worry, not annoyance, in the teacher's words. Kurenai quickly got to her feet, swerving around her desk to Sakura's, shaking the girl roughly. "Sakura! Sakura, honey, wake up."

One of the students from the back, a girl, asked in a frightened voice, "What's happening?"

Kurenai continually shook Sakura but to no avail. Sakura was completely immobile, and Sasuke noticed a sickly pale color creeping into her features like a disease. His body moved of its accord as he stood from his seat.

Kurenai had already drawn Sakura's face up from the desk, grabbing the girl's hand to check for a pulse. "Someone call 911!" she screamed, immediately grabbing Sakura's body by the girl's slim waist and dragging her out of the chair. The girl's desk tipped and fell from all the shaky weight, but Kurenai ignored it, laying Sakura flat on her back. "Someone run to get the nurse!" Sasuke saw two of the boys bolt out the door, screaming for the nurse as they did. Sasuke's attention was fixed on the lifeless Sakura, who despite all of the jostling did not wake, even as Kurenai pressed her head to Sakura's chest.

"She's not breathing," Sasuke heard Kurenai whisper frightened. "But she has a pulse..." She turned to the class. "Does anyone here know how to perform rescue breathing?"

Sasuke's body again moved of its own accord. Without thinking, he was beside his teacher, muttering something about knowing how, but he paid the teacher no mind. He hovered over Sakura, flattening her body against the floor. He took her chin in his hands, shuddering at how she did not move and how wax-like her features seemed. What on earth was going on? He didn't think and craned her head back to open her airways. Then he lowered his lips to hers and breathed.

Sasuke could feel the other students around him, shuffling about, some of the girls crying for Sakura, some just staring in complete awe. Kurenai reacted quickly to the situation and ushered them out into the hall, but Sasuke didn't notice this. He was focused only at the sound of his own breath passing through Sakura's mouth and into her body, and he noted for a moment that he was keeping her alive with his body. Without him, she would die. Sasuke had never saved a life before...

"Sakura!"

Naruto's voice echoed throughout the hallway, panicked and cracking with emotion as he grappled with the other students to get closer. There were other footsteps and the sound of heightened voices, but to Sasuke there was only the sound of Sakura letting out air, the seconds ticking by so slowly he could feel them passing like whispers on his skin.

She did not wake. Sakura's chest rose with his air slightly as he removed his mouth so the air could be let out. But there was no response. Again he lowered his head to her lips, fastening a tighter hold over her nose to make sure no air escaped. Her chest rose higher than before, but when it fell to normal, she did not stir.

"Ambulance is on the way," Kurenai said worriedly.

Beside him Sasuke could feel Naruto crying, kneeling beside him. Sasuke pressed his mouth to the girl's again, breathing into her slowly, letting her chest rise. No response.

"What's happening?" he heard Naruto cry beside him.

"Check her pulse," Sasuke bit out before fastening his mouth to hers again.

Naruto's reply was chocked. "It's..." The blonde's eyes widened. "Sasuke, CPR!"

Sasuke knew immediately. Sakura's heart had stopped. He began pumping her chest rhythmically, before pressing his mouth to hers but this time faster and with more effort. She didn't move though. She didn't respond.

Sasuke sat on one of the subway's many benches, looking at the passing trains with cold eyes and noting that none of them were the train he needed to get home. His face lay heavily in his hands, and he sighed slowly. He couldn't explain the lead-like feeling in his chest. It must be Naruto, he thought, looking forward to his blonde companion who stood dangerously close to the edge of the subway platform, practically shaking.

Two hours ago Sakura's heart had stopped. Sasuke had been performing CPR when the paramedics arrived, shoving both boys out of the way and pulling out the defibrillator. Sakura's body had jumped six inches off the ground each time an electric volt shot through her body, but they did not stop until her heart started, very faintly, beating again.

Sasuke couldn't quite process it. He had never been in that kind of situation before in his entire life, and no matter how many times it went over and over again in his head, he couldn't process it. It was as if another person had performed CPR on the girl. Sasuke remembered the remarks of the paramedics as they loaded the now stable girl into the ambulance. They'd said something about him doing a good job, he'd gotten a few pats on the shoulder. He couldn't process it.

Naruto seemed to be in a state of nervous shock, pacing back and forth, rummaging angry fingers through his hair and violently cursing for the subway train to arrive. He didn't allow anyone to keep him at school, despite the the teachers protests. Sasuke didn't even know why he was tagging along. He told himself that it was for Naruto, that friends did this for other friends, but while that was half true, Sasuke couldn't get over the fact that he somewhat had ulterior motives. There had to be something else going on. What exactly was beyond him.

In front of him, Naruto swore again. "She's never had this so close together before... Dammit, her parents aren't picking up the phone. Fuck!" He squirmed with his cellphone again, practically stabbing the numbers with his fingers, holding up the receiver to his ear. "Pick up, pick up, pick up... Dammit!" He looked like he was about to throw the thing onto the train tracks.

In the distance the sound of the train screeching on the tracks alerted Sasuke of the locomotive's approach, and he raised his head to Naruto. The boy still paced, but he stared down the train with enough force for Sasuke to know that this was the train that would take them back into the city. Back to the hospital. Sasuke didn't know what to think of it all. There were so many questions milling about in his brain, but the idea of asking Naruto made him physically wince. His best friend looked like he was about to rip his hair out in frustration and sob at the same time. Sasuke put a firm hand on the blonde's shoulder, steadying him while they waited for the train.

Naruto took a few deep breaths as the train roared toward them, screaming to an undignified stop and hissing as the doors slid open. Sasuke made Naruto sit beside the door, while he stood before his friend. It was the two o'clock train. School hadn't been let out yet, and lunch time was over. The train was practically deserted, only a few other people huddled on the other side of the cart, opposite from the two boys in Konoha uniform. Sasuke felt their stares but didn't pay attention to them, looking down at Naruto, who was holding his head in his hands. "I can't get a hold of her parents, and she's never done this before." Sasuke did not have to assume the boy was talking about Sakura.

"She's... she's never had two attacks so close together before," Naruto continued, his voice so soft that Sasuke had to strain to hear it. "I can't... I can't handle this."

Sasuke said nothing, staring down at Naruto. He shifted slightly as the weight in his chest deepened, and if he didn't know better, Sasuke would have thought he were just as shaken up by the information. But he didn't know why. What on earth was wrong with that girl? She seemed fine, normal, except for how exceptional she was.

"She's dying."

The train shuddered slightly, turning into the city and groaning as the tracks shuffled against one another. The man holding a railing beside one of the doors coughed into his hand and placed it back on the railing to gain balance. On the outskirts of hearing, a crying baby could be heard. Sasuke stood still, so still, like a statue, his face unchanging from the mask of composure.

"Sakura," Naruto whispered, water falling from his eyes and down to his shirt, "is dying."

**Chapter 6 end.**

**Apologies for the delay. Unexpected things slapped me across the face, and I reel when I attempt to gain composure. In any case, there you have it. Sakura is dying. Why? No idea. Well, at least Sasuke doesn't know yet. I warn you, things will not always be this melancholly, I promise. Please review. More than "please update." That'd be great.**

**I love trains. **


	7. Eureka

**Chapter 7.**

**I hope to begin to move things more quickly. I'm tired of things taking a long time, but I feel as if there are things that have to happen inside everyone's mind so this can all make _sense_. Being realistic means taking some time, and I hope patience can remain everyone's virtue. Lord knows, I want to have things go faster. In any case, do review, I love replies. **

**I swear, they make me write faster. And longer chapters.**

In another time Sasuke could not have cared less about some mindless girl in his class. There were always plenty of girls. They all clumped together, and they were loud and they squealed when he walked by. Beyond that, Sasuke didn't spare too much thought on them. He'd had other things to think about. He was studying or working out or combating vicious memories that would pop up from time to time. There were so many things to do. He had to be great, the best, because he was an Uchiha, and being the best was expected of an Uchiha. His brother was the best, so Sasuke had to be the better. His parents had wanted... no, he didn't want to think about his parents. Instead of thinking about them, he would read a book so complicated that he'd have to reread each page before moving on. He would work on some kind of assignment, or he would run for the track team. If all else failed, he would go to Naruto's house and sit on the blonde boy's couch and say nothing until Naruto forced him to say something. They would play video games or fight or fight while playing video games. In any case, he didn't have time for girls. He didn't think about girls, he didn't want girls; girls were annoying.

Sakura was dying.

He ground his teeth together so tightly that if they snapped under the pressure he would not be surprised. There were so many questions steaming within his mind that he felt fit to burst. The rocking of the train jarred his already sensitive stomach, which he held slightly with his left hand, staring down at the dirty steel floor. Outside the shadows of trees and silver buildings passed the train window like a blur and caused him to shift his eyes so he wouldn't get dizzy. Sasuke didn't know how he was supposed to think about everything that had happened that day. Was he in shock? Was that the explanation of the horrid feeling in his stomach and chest? He hissed out a long breath, intending to get an explanation out of Naruto, but the train stopped, and the doors opened.

Naruto bolted out of the doors like a bullet and didn't bother looking behind him to see if Sasuke caught up. Of course the dark-haired boy did, but that didn't mean he wasn't having a hard time doing it. For a full fifteen minutes, they ran up and down the streets of the city, Naruto always in the lead, knowing the way to the hospital so well that it surprised Sasuke. The fact that when Naruto burst through the doors of the emergency room, bellowing to the front desk to ask about what room "Miss Haruno" was in, no one questioned him and merely gave him directions was also puzzling. Just how often had Naruto come to the hospital? And without Sasuke knowing? Too many questions, and he was getting a headache.

Naruto rounded a corner, narrowly dodging a few other people and yelling back a hasty apology. Sasuke almost lost the blonde boy, but when he rounded another corner, Naruto was in view, standing almost exactly where he had stood two weeks ago in the early morning hours. This was the same hallway that Naruto had waited in before.

Sasuke stopped running, panting for breath and leaning his hands and shoulders against his knees to calm himself down. Naruto looked completely unaffected by his hazardous sprint, staring down the hall to the only room that had the door open. That was the room Sakura had burst through the first night Sasuke had been there. She was in the same room.

Naruto took a deep, shaky breath and again ran nervous hands through his face and hair, ending with a rub on his neck. Sasuke stood fully, finding a place next to the blonde and remaining silent as they both stared into the room.

There were Sakura's parents and another lady in a lab coat hovering about a sleeping Sakura, who lay under the white sheets of the hospital bed. The couple were middle-aged, the woman with pink hair a shade lighter than Sakura's and much curlier. She had soft brown eyes that were filled to the brim with tears as she laid a hand on her sleeping daughter's limp fingers. Sakura's father held an arm about his wife's shoulders, green eyes looking just as broken and forlorn but attentive as he focused on the doctor.

Sasuke recognized the doctor as Dr. Tsunade, one of the Konoha's finest medical specialists. He knew it because the Uchiha corporation made regular donations to Konoha Hospital, and he was obligated to attend the functions and benefits that came with the donations. Tsunade was a busty but stubborn woman with light hair and golden eyes that held enough fierceness to even keep Sasuke on his toes. However, she looked nearly as broken as Sakura's parents, murmuring to them in hushed tones.

"It's not good," she said. "Sakura's heart completely stopped today. I can tell you that she'll wake up again, but her condition will be anyone's guess from today onwards. We can only hope she'll make it through this year..."

Sakura's mother broke down completely, burying her face in the palms of her hands, her shoulders quaking with the tears. Sasuke felt like an outsider encroaching upon something preciously private and took a hesitant step back. Naruto, however, took a step forward.

"There's nothing to worry about!"

All three adults turned to the blonde boy.

"Sakura has never let me down," he continued fiercely. "I believe in her! She has things that she wants to do! I know she won't let this end until she finishes what she's started! I'm sure of it!" Naruto clenched his hands into balls of shaking energy. "And I'm going to wait for her as long as it takes. I swear it!"

Sasuke took another step backward, but this time in shock at Naruto's outburst. What right did he have, yelling at the parents and the doctor of a classmate? None of this made any sense at all!

"Naruto..."

Sakura's mother whispered the syllables of Naruto's name like they were a mantra. Sasuke watched the tiny woman warily as she approached the boy and took him by the shoulders. She whispered to him so quietly that Sasuke could barely hear her words. "Through all of this, you have been her closest friend. We've tried to protect her, make her live longer, but she gets mad at us... She might even hate us for holding her back this long." She started crying again, her voice raising in volume and pitch. "But I just wanted her to know that we loved her. We loved her and we wanted to keep her alive... You always wanted her to _live_. I..." She sobbed, then collected herself. "I'm going to let her have her way when she wakes up. Please... please take care of her..."

She kissed Naruto deeply on the cheek, holding him by the shoulders in a hug then abruptly released him, walking past Sasuke then out the doors, crying unabashedly in the afternoon light pouring through the windows. Sakura's father followed suit but not before patting Naruto on the arm. Tsunade stayed for a few more minutes, checking the monitors. Her face was grim, her mouth set in a firm line of withheld emotions. Then she too left the room, leaving the two boys alone with Sakura, who still slept. The monitor in the corner beeped quietly, signaling each time Sakura's heart beat, reminding each of them with every tick that some day soon, that monitor may stop...

Naruto abruptly collapsed to a seat in front of the bed, holding his head in his hands and rubbing his hair furiously. "They finally did it," he kept repeating, and Sasuke was afraid he'd cry again. He didn't know if he could handle this whole situation, much less Naruto breaking down again. Naruto wasn't supposed to be like this. Naruto was a ball of flexible, insatiable energy that never _ever_ stopped for anything. Naruto was happiness and sunshine itself. Sasuke had seen Naruto get his ass completely beaten multiple times in a day and come out grinning, but this was too much. This was hell.

"Naruto," Sasuke said finally, his voice snapping the silence in half, like a punch through a glass window. He found himself flinching at the sound. "What you said on the train..."

There was a brief silence in which Sasuke irrationally thought that perhaps he had heard wrong on the train, that Naruto had said something else about the mortality of Sakura's existence, and that Sasuke was feeling so awful in the pit of his stomach because of something he ate today and not because the knowledge that a girl so bright and happy was going to die. He thought for a moment that everything that was teeming in his skull was nothing more than the appropriate reaction to the stress of the day. But then Naruto looked up at him with those bright blue eyes. Naruto had eyes that were the essence of expression, and Sasuke could see the blue of a frightening ocean of grief warring away behind those eyes. Naruto clenched his jaw and lowered his head.

"Yeah... Sakura's dying."

Sasuke swallowed a huge lump that had gathered unexpectedly in his throat. He felt his eyes abruptly sting and his stomach flip. Both reactions surprised him so violently that he automatically shut all responses down, pulling back into his reflexive mask of disinterest. Naruto remained silent, which was infuriating.

Sasuke didn't know why Naruto didn't say anything further, why he didn't explain. Naruto knew that Sasuke hated to talk, which is why, no matter if Sasuke wanted it or not, Naruto would always fill the empty silence. But this time Naruto seemed contented to be taciturn, something Sasuke couldn't deal with at the moment. He needed answers, but he was loathe to speak. After a full minute of silence, he opened his mouth, sure to keep his voice monotone and short.

"Why?"

Naruto let out a long, heavy breath, leaning back in his chair so his head hung limply backwards. It looked like his neck was broken from that angle. "It's always been like this. I was six when I met Sakura. She was my first friend and literally my sister when her parents took me in after... after..."

Sasuke knew well enough that Naruto had been six at the time of his parents' death. He needed no explanation.

"After _that_." He cleared his throat. "Anyway, I was not in the best state of mind. I was alone and... and angry. Why did they have to die and leave me all alone? Didn't they love me enough to stay with me? I didn't know, and when Sakura's parents took me in, I was so angry because I was jealous of Sakura. She had parents who loved her, and I didn't have anyone.

"One day, when we were at school, Sakura fell off the monkey bars. I guess even though I was jealous of her, I still cared because I rushed to her side. But she didn't wake up. Sakura had an attack. The sudden fear made her heart rate escalate, but instead of keeping pace, her heart just shut down. That's what happens to her even today." He sighed. "When Sakura was born, she had cancer. They thought that they had treated it right, but the treatments they used permanently damaged Sakura's heart. And no matter what they do, her heart just continues to get weaker and weaker. Sometimes it's just as if she has asthma. Like she'll have to calm down and steady herself, and she'll be okay. But other times it's more serious. Like today... and last time..."

Sasuke didn't know what to say. He hoped to God that Naruto would keep talking, but the blonde boy again fell silent, staring quietly to the girl in question. Sasuke found his eyes unconsciously following the blonde's gaze and settling on the sleeping girl. The way the sun played in shadows and patches of brightness made Sakura seem unreal, as if she were a character out of one of those weird fantasy movies that Naruto made Sasuke watch from time to time. Sasuke didn't like her like this. Sakura was always a natural sort of person. She didn't put on that much make-up, didn't prattle around or disguise how she was feeling. She was practically an open book from what he had gathered from her. But then again, he now felt like everything he had ever observed in her was a complete lie. Sakura was lying to everyone at school. No one knew that she was dying. Or that she was even more amazing than what they thought. Even Sasuke had to recognize it. What he once saw as mildly interesting had transformed into extraordinary. Every kind of accomplishment she had achieved just increased tenfold because not only did she do things that were brilliant, she did them with a body that was deteriorating. Everything about her suddenly became... extraordinary.

"Sakura... she," Naruto said quietly. "She lived her whole life up till last year... in this hospital. Her parents were scared that if she went to school, if she went outside even, that her condition would get worse. That she'd die faster... The years I went to school at Sound were the worst apparently... But I came back. I didn't know she'd been living like a prisoner, so when I came back, I threw a fit. I..."

Sasuke could imagine it. He'd attended middle school with Naruto, or at least the last two years of it. Naruto had always talked about some childhood friend, but Sasuke had never paid much attention to him. But he knew Naruto well enough from back then to know how angry Naruto could get when his friends were being mistreated. Sasuke knew because of the way Naruto had treated Sasuke, how he had always looked after Sasuke, the protective brother he needed. Naruto was also the protective brother of Sakura. Yes, Sasuke could imagine Naruto's wrath...

"We decided to go to school together," he continued. "Sakura said there was so much she wanted to do... so whatever she wanted, I'd encourage her. Her parents though..." He took a breath. "It was out of love, I know. They were worried. They didn't want her to die. But with her getting worse, I guess, they're going to do what Sakura wanted. They're going to leave her alone."

Sasuke blinked, surprised, and against his will inquired, "Alone?"

"Sakura has never known independence. Her parents have always been there for her day and night. Sakura's always tried to get them to have another kid, or live their own lives, but they refused to do anything but look after her. It made Sakura feel guilty, because she thought they were putting their lives on hold for her, but now that she's getting worse, they're leaving. They're giving Sakura her independence because they think she doesn't have much time left. They're going to return soon, but the fact that they agreed to leave at all is amazing."

Again Sasuke was astounded by all the conflicting thoughts scampering about in his brain and how much they seemed to physically pain him. He couldn't understand what exactly he was trying to process. This whole situation seemed like an unreal and badly scripted joke, where Naruto would spring to his feet in a moment and yell, "PSYCHE!" He couldn't grasp the situation, but even more so he couldn't grasp why on earth the situation seemed to be causing him so much damn _pain_.

He tried in vain to shove those thoughts out of his mind and into the back of his subconsciousness, but they refused to budge. Instead they spread like wildfire from his head down his throat and into the pit of his stomach, bubbling into a steamy concoction of emotions. Sasuke hated emotions. He hated how much they crippled him. He hadn't felt this strongly about anything since he learned that Naruto wouldn't be going to school with him any longer. He had felt so lonely... like he would die without Naruto making things interesting for him, being his brother. Sasuke had followed Naruto to Konoha High to escape the kind of feelings that were bombarding him now.

Woah, wait a minute.

Sasuke blinked twice and looked back to Sakura's sleeping face. He stared until he could feel that awful feeling he'd been feeling the past two weeks, only this time it was intensified a hundred fold. He could feel every single beat of his pulse against his ribcage, and as he stopped to examine what exactly was going on in his head he made a sudden and horrifying realization that nearly brought him to his metaphysical knees.

_Sakura had suddenly meant as much to him as Naruto, and he had no idea why._

"When she wakes up," Naruto said quietly, "I'll tell her that you know everything."

Sasuke was still reeling inwardly. He turned around to the door so he could leave that damn room and leave the damn hospital and leave the damn girl so he didn't have to think about any of it anymore. That was his reaction to these kinds of things. Sasuke knew he was, at his most basic, a cowardly kind of person. Instead of facing things directly, he tended to run the hell away from what made him uncomfortable. He was fine with running for now. All of this was much too painful. He was about to walk outside the door, when a sudden, nagging thought flew to the front of his mind and threw itself out of his mouth: "Why did you tell me all of this?"

Naruto looked at Sasuke, who stood in the doorway of the room. "You helped to save her life today. I figured you should know that what you did really mattered. And I'm grateful."

Sasuke nodded once and continued to walk outside the room, leaving the hospital and Naruto behind.

Sasuke didn't take the train home. He walked through the entire city until he finally reached the front gate of the Uchiha's Main house located on the western border of Konoha City. In all it had been a four hour walk, but it wasn't Sasuke's legs that were tired. His head was killing him, throbbing like an overused muscle. Unconsciously he punched in the key code at the manor's front gate and passed inside before the steel bars were even fully out of the way. The manor's garden was lush and luxurious, intended to impress potential clients that came from far and wide to invest in the Uchiha Corporation. It extended in both directions from either side of the tan gravel driveway with crisp green grass. Sasuke walked another ten minutes under the branches of oak and cherry blossom trees that swayed slowly from side to side with the western wind. But all of this was lost on Sasuke.

Because Sasuke was attempting to analyze what on _earth_ was happening to him. He knew that it somehow had to be Naruto's fault. Naruto was usually the cause of Sasuke's most recent problems, so he figured that starting there had to be his best bet. Then again Naruto had little to nothing to do with Sasuke's recent observation of Sakura. Naruto had even less to do with Sakura's... condition. Sasuke winced visibly when he thought about it, gritting his teeth. He hated _feeling_ this way. It was unnatural for him.

He moved to the front door of the estate, not noticing the black Lincoln parked in front of the house as he fished for a key in his black trouser pockets. He opened the mahogany wooden door with ease and stepped into the foyer, removing his shoes the instant he set foot into the house. The front room was a mixture of rich dark woods, lining the floor and the borders, embroidered carpets and a huge chandelier hanging overhead. To either side of him were doors leading to different wings of the house and before him was a large imposing staircase. Up the staircase was his room, and he wanted nothing more than to fall into his bed and sleep in it until dawn the next day.

"Sasuke."

Despite himself, Sasuke literally jumped. His fried nerves and confused state allowed him a rare moment of weakness, and Sasuke jumped a good two inches in the air, his shoulders stiffening in complete shock.

"Oh my, I got you good that time."

Sasuke spun and suddenly felt all of his energy drain from his body all at once. "Itachi..."

Itachi stood leaning on the doorway to Sasuke's right, his arms folded over the chest of his black suit and tie. His long hair was rebelliously fraying in some places where it peaked a bit out of his ponytail and a tiny bit of stubble adorned his chin. He more than likely had just returned from a business trip to Sasuke didn't remember where. He looked at Sasuke as if he were a ghost. "Are you alright, little brother?"

Sasuke stiffened, not knowing what to do. Itachi was... Well in simple terms, Itachi meant everything to Sasuke. Itachi could be trusted, Itachi was the closest thing Sasuke had to a confidant. If Sasuke ever felt like he could not possibly solve something by himself, he would go to Itachi. Of everyone in Sasuke's life, Sasuke knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that he absolutely adored Itachi.

"I.. I don't know," Sasuke said weakly.

Itachi seemed to understand. Itachi _always_ understood. He didn't waste words or move to touch Sasuke. He simply moved to the next room, knowing Sasuke would follow. They were in the back kitchen, where normally the huge meals for guests would be prepared by a professional cook. Itachi was already sitting at the small table in the center of the small dining area in the corner, the seat opposite empty until Sasuke took it.

Itachi didn't say anything for a while, which Sasuke was thankful for. He wanted to try thinking things through in his mind and somehow put it all into a question, but nothing came to mind.

"Is Naruto alright?"

Sasuke looked up at his brother, surprised, but then he thought logically and indeed, Naruto would normally be the cause of something this detrimental. "No," he said, then he thought harder. "And yes. I don't know... Naruto's fine, if that's what you mean."

Itachi nodded. "Are you healthy?"

Sasuke nodded in return and from the corner of his eye saw Itachi lean back in his chair, a sign he was puzzled. This was not a good start.

Sasuke desperately thought for something to say, and finally blurted the first thing to pop into his mind. "Brother, do you have many friends?"

His brother tilted his head to the side, surprised by the question. But he did answer honestly. "Not _many_. A very choice few, though. With our history, there are few who could handle an honest me. But when I find a friend, I keep them close."

"Close," Sasuke repeated, closing his eyes. "How do you know when someone becomes a friend? Or rather..." he struggled with the words. "When you _want _them to become your friend? And when you shouldn't be friends with someone... How do you know?"

Sasuke looked up at his brother expectantly, and noted how seriously Itachi was taking his questions into consideration. This was why he trusted his brother. He knew when things were important. Itachi surprised Sasuke by answering with another question. "How did you know when you wanted to become friends with Naruto?"

"Well, that's... I didn't! I mean, he was annoying!" Sasuke gasped, exasperated. "I _hated_ him! This is different!"

"Well, at least you've acknowledged that. This is different than friendship. This means more to you."

Sasuke blinked.

"I remember when you would come home angry because of 'some loser' at your school who was driving you crazy. That was you starting to have a friend. I don't know what this is, Sasuke, but it's much different, and it means a great deal to you. Maybe the same amount as Naruto, but in a much different way. I've never seen you so upset."

Sasuke didn't quite understand what his brother meant until he looked down at himself. His walk through the city had made him dirty. His white uniform shirt was dotted with brown dirt and smears of sweat. Sasuke could only imagine what his face looked like, covered in both dirt and an expression he was terrified of. What Itachi was saying in itself was terrifying. Sasuke didn't like being with other people, he didn't like the idea of liking people enough to be vulnerable. The fact that he might have started unconsciously caring for someone against his will was absolutely terrifying. And the fact that that someone might be _dying_ was even worse.

Itachi leaned a little toward Sasuke. "Did something happen today?"

"A girl in my class stopped breathing, and I saved her life," Sasuke said all at once in a rush. He felt like smacking his head against the table but couldn't do that in front of his brother. "And... and she's dying." he finished. "And I don't know what to do."

"Oh..."

That one word signified that Itachi officially knew what was going on in Sasuke's head, even if Sasuke didn't realize it. "You're wondering if you should be friends with someone who's dying. If you can handle it."

Sasuke looked up, meeting eyes with his brother. Everything seemed to absurdly clear all of a sudden. Everything shot directly into perspective. There was a reason he was feeling the way he was feeling. It wasn't coincidence, it wasn't an accident. Sasuke had been watching Sakura longer than two weeks, even before she had fainted two weeks ago. Sasuke had always admired her determination. How fearless she was. Sasuke knew that on the inside, he was a coward. Naruto was naturally brave, which is why Sasuke admired him. In Sakura he admired the same thing but on a whole different level. In fact, admiration wasn't the right word for it.

"Itachi," Sasuke said in a whisper. "Things are going to change fast."

Itachi smiled softly. "I know, little brother. I know."

**Chapter 7 end.**

**Again please review. From now on, things are going to be fairly interesting. I've spent seven chapters getting to this point, and I'm ready to move. But reviews really help alot in the writing process. They let me know I'm on the right track or if I'm not. So please review. Thanks so much.**


	8. Suckerpunched

**Chapter 8**

Sakura didn't particularly like pole-vaulting. She had very little upper arm strength and sometimes she couldn't get herself high enough to surpass the horizontal pole, and the she would land flat on her face in an embarrassing display of clumsiness. However, she was willing to try to perfect her technique in an attempt to round herself out as a track competitor. Her coach had always told her that being the best at one thing was good, but being good at everything was better. So Sakura was, for about the hundredth time that morning, lining herself up against the pole vault mat and looking up the horizontal pole about ten feet above her head. She sighed and closed her eyes, willing her body to gather up some courage and to try again.

She'd gotten out of the hospital just yesterday, three days after fainting in the middle of class. She hadn't even remembered falling asleep, the last thing on her mind being that she was tired then closing her eyes. Then she was suddenly in the hospital, having a panic attack and being swayed into calmness by Naruto's firm voice and hands. She closed her eyes at the thought of it. This had never happened to her before. She was always aware of when her heart was giving her trouble. What had happened four days ago was more worrying than she could put into words. It stripped her of her control. Sakura had always flirted with the lines of what was being active and what was being dangerous, but now that that line had become marred, she didn't know what to do. Was she going to die in her sleep one day? She could hardly bear the thought and hadn't slept well since. The idea that every passing second could be her last struck her so hard that she could hardly think of anything else. It certainly hadn't helped her act normally around her friends. In fact, she found that avoiding all of them was the only solution she could muster. It may be unfair to all the friends that were worried about her, but she couldn't think of any other way to return herself to a sense of normalcy. She felt as if everything was changing, and she couldn't keep up.

Sakura opened her eyes and blinked away fat, unwanted tears. No she couldn't cry now. She had to focus!

She steeled herself and gripped the pole in her hands tighter. Without thinking she darted forward and headed for the mat, closing her eyes at the lest second as she plunged the pole into the ground, launching herself in the air with a battle cry. She flew higher and higher, spinning around with an elegant twirl and arching her back precisely over the horizontal pole. For a moment time stopped. Her back was to the ground, her face angled up at the sky and she could see all the tangled clouds glowing a cherry pink against the rising of the sun. A cool breeze blew through her hair and she savored the feeling of weightlessness. Her heart, she noted with pleasure, leaped in a good way in her chest.

She landed with a _piff_ on the mat below her, her arms and legs spread wide as she continued to look up at the sky. The pole she'd used clattered harmlessly to the ground, but still she lay there, only seeing the sun rising slowly in the east. It was beautiful. How man people could say that they had seen something so beautiful?

Sakura closed her eyes and thanked whatever God was out there for the opportunity to see such a sunrise.

"Sakura!"

Sakura's eyes snapped open with a start and she leaned up from her position to see Ino running to her from across the field, waving her arms furiously. Odd. Ino usually wasn't here this early.

Sakura shuffled off the mat just in time for Ino to run up, panting heavily. "Sakura!" she exclaimed again. "Wow, you're pole-vaulting?"

Sakura looked back to the discarded pole and the recently-used mat sheepishly. Ino knew that Sakura didn't quite like the pole-vault. "Well, yeah... I want to get better at it, so I don't weigh the team down."

Ino snorted. "Yeah, like that's possible. How many times do I have to tell you, you're the best on our team! Anyway, that's not why I'm here! Did you know that Sasuke's here?"

Sakura cringed.

This was not her normal reaction, of course. Sasuke was the school's heart throb. If he was seen somewhere, preferably alone, Ino would tell Sakura, and (more for Ino than Sakura) they would proceed to sort of well... follow the boy, wondering what he was doing. Sakura hadn't held too much interest in the focus of the activity (like Ino had. She was very much in love with the mysterious boy) but today she was absolutely repulsed by it. Sasuke had... well Sasuke...

Sasuke _knew._

"_I had to tell him everything," _Naruto's voice rang in her head. It was a few hours after she had first woken up. She had eaten, she had been calm until Naruto had said those words. _"I t_o_ld Sasuke about you. I'm sorry I had to, but he helped save you. I thought he deserved to know. If you're mad, I get it. I just did what I felt I had to..."_

Another grimace came on full force. Sakura could understand Naruto's logic. From what she'd heard (not only from Naruto but from Ino later) Sasuke had given her CPR when she wasn't breathing, until the paramedics arrived, practically saving her life. She owed him, of course. But that didn't mean she wanted him to _know_.

She'd avoided him like the plague ever since.

In fact, Sakura couldn't remember even seeing the boy the past few days. She had skipped the classes they had together, had made an excuse to eat her lunch in the classroom, and had even changed up her normal routine of which hallways she would take to classes. Maybe she was being a bit extreme, but she felt like she couldn't face him. The idea that he knew so many intimate details about her life was frightening. The fact that she thought he was excessively attractive didn't make it any better.

"Sakura?" Ino asked, pulling Sakura out of her momentary blackout into the present. "Are you alright?"

"I'm fine," Sakura said shortly. "I'm sorry, I'm not in the mood today, okay? You can go talk to him by yourself if you want."

Ino raised an eyebrow curiously. "Oh... Alright, I guess... I'll see you in class then."

Sakura nodded, offering a weak smile that left her face the moment Ino turned away to leave.

This was a nightmare.

This was a nightmare.

Sasuke couldn't stop sweating for some reason, and it was driving him to the brink of insanity. Beside him Naruto sat nonchalant, reading a comic book and snacking on a chocolate bar absently. Every once in a while a spare crumb would fall from his mouth onto the table, but the blonde boy ignored it and kept reading his book.

Sasuke wanted to ask Naruto where Sakura had been the past couple of days, if she was okay, if she was healthier, why she hadn't come to class, why she didn't take the same route to her classes that she used to, and _why he couldn't seem to find her no matter how hard he looked._ But asking Naruto that was the equivalent of Sasuke dancing around the school in his underwear to Beatles songs, and both were equally unlikely. Sasuke didn't know how to ask without _really_ asking. He didn't know how to bring the girl up in conversation.

He suddenly cursed himself for being so goddamn taciturn.

"You're brooding."

Sasuke looked up to Naruto's uncharacteristically serious face. "What makes you say that?" he asked uneasily.

"You're not reading your book, and you keep looking at me. What is it?"

"Nothing." Sasuke said it so quickly that he didn't have time to even think. Wasn't this the opening he was wanting? For Naruto to know something was bothering him and to pry further?

"It's obviously something."

"No, it isn't, you loser."

Naruto threw his comic book at Sasuke's head, which the dark-haired boy dodged narrowly. "Don't call me a loser because you don't know how to talk! You've been like this for days! What the hell is going on? Is it-"

Naruto stopped himself, leaning back in his chair. "Oh..."

_Did he get it?_ Sasuke thought anxiously. It would be wonderful if Naruto suddenly got all of it like Itachi had. Then Sasuke wouldn't have to figure out a way to put his feelings into words.

"The fact that Sakura's dying freaks you out right?" Naruto asked gravely. "Are you disgusted?"

Sasuke shot up from his chair, appalled at the very thought. "That's not it!" Naruto's eyes widened in surprise, looking his panting friend up and down as if he had spontaneously combusted. "That's not it," Sasuke repeated slowly, getting back into his chair and running hands through his hair nervously.

"Sasuke," Naruto whispered. "Do you..."

The bell rang, and before Naruto could say anything Sasuke was out of his chair and halfway down the hall.

He couldn't stomach the fact that he had no idea where to begin with people. Period. Before in his life he had never actively sought anyone out, completely content to live his life devoid of any human connection save his own brother. Before Naruto, Sasuke didn't have any friends. Sasuke barely had anyone he could even call an acquaintance, and he had preferred to stay within the confines of a solitary lifestyle. To say the least Sasuke valued the opinions and feelings of other people minimally, but he knew that the desire to spend time with Sakura was a prevalent thought in his mind. Dealing with that very thought was becoming increasingly difficult. Before Naruto, the dark-haired boy thought bitterly, he would have never had such agonizing thoughts circling around in his mind. Naruto had certainly changed a great deal in Sasuke, and Sasuke was even more afraid of the consequences of forming another human connection.

Especially with a female.

Girls at school were usually the only feminine contact that Sasuke had with the outside world, except for the few women he was introduced at parties and the like held by the company. Women seemed undeniably simple, their interests few and common. They all wore dresses and prattled and fussed too much. There were the girls that were loud, that were annoying, and that were a hazardous combination of the two. Sasuke had never had a woman prove him wrong in his thoughts about women.

Until he had began to take notice of Sakura.

In all his experience, Sasuke had never met someone as complex as Sakura. She seemed to be doing so much yet so little at the same time. She lived obscurely, no one having been to her house (except for Naruto) and no one forming any real bonds with her outside of school. She was someone who didn't run from obstacles, obviously, choosing to run right for them and hurtle over them. Or trip over them, he thought with a smirk, thinking back to one of the first times he had seen her on the track field.

But she was dying.

Sasuke halted his fast-paced walk to stare out of the glowing windows that leaked sunlight into the empty hallway. The sun had already risen enough to where the entire school grounds were basking in the light to the extent where the windows of the opposite building gleamed piercingly.

Sakura was dying.

Sasuke didn't know how to process that information. But unlike what Naruto thought, there was no disgust within Sasuke in regards to it. There was only an intense feeling of the need for speed. Sasuke felt as if he had to move quickly. If he was serious about forming some kind of connection, then he would need to somehow start it.

He continued to walk, his jaw set firmly while his eyes burned with brooding discontent. He rounded a corner and almost collided head on with another female from his class, a collision that he narrowly avoided by stopping short.

"S-Sasuke!" the girl gasped in surprised.

Sasuke knew this girl. "Karin."

Karin gulped and lowered her head, a light pink color dusting her cheeks so her face nearly matched her flaming red hair. "Oh, Sasuke," she said in a high, soft voice. "I didn't see you. My apologies..."

"It's nothing," he said briskly, making to walk past her, but he stopped himself short.

Karin stared at Sasuke with wide, surprised eyes and he looked her over silently. Karin was certainly female as well, wasn't she? Naturally it was the female physique itself that Sasuke was becoming attracted to rather than a specific person, and Karin was an apt specimen. He could test it.

Almost eagerly, he leaned forward, intentionally encroaching upon her personal space. "Karin," he said softly.

The girl sputtered and blushed furiously before him, lowering her head. "Oh... Oh, Sasuke," she breathed. "I... Oh, my..."

He moved closer to her, leaning a hand against the wall just beside her head for balance. Their noses were barely touching. Sasuke looked the girl up and down, estimating her attractiveness. She was certainly adequate, possessing a slim, appealing figure, pretty eyes (by his standards), and curves in all the right places, again in his opinion. She was just as athletic as Sakura, very smart, he knew from her scores on tests, and altogether every bit as pretty as Sakura.

But it wasn't the same. He fought the urge to grit his teeth in front of the stunned girl. In desperation he mumbled, "Karin, what do you feel?"

The girl raised her eyes to his, that red sheen deepening. "Feel?" the whispered.

"When you're around the person you like?"

Karin let out a high-pitched sigh and opened her mouth as if she were attempting to speak, but all that came out with light breaths. After a while she said furiously, "I... I feel... Oh, Sasuke..." She closed her eyes and leaned closer to him, extending her lips outward, as if they were attracted like a magnet to Sasuke's.

The boy wrinkled his brows at her and abruptly pushed himself away from her, repulsed. There was nothing beneficiary in this conversation any longer. He left her kissing air as he fled down the hall and down the adjacent stairwell.

Well, that was a failed experiment, Sasuke thought dejectedly.

"Sasuke!" It was Karin's voice. "What's wrong?"

He didn't even turn around to acknowledge her. He had to find Sakura.

The girl in question was, not surprisingly, on the track field. The end of the day brought the entire track team together, practicing their specialties with enough vigor to impress professionals. This, unintentionally, was Sakura's doing as well. The women of the team were concerned with not looking like complete fools in front of Sakura's athletic prowess, which in turn caused the men of the team to practice as well to keep up with the females. Altogether the team was probably the best Konoha High had ever seen because Sakura (again unintentionally) was just so damn good at it.

Ino watched the pink-haired girl run, admiring her friend with a small grin. With Sakura, they had a good shot of winning at the national level. Her smile faltered somewhat when Sakura stumbled slightly then regained her footing in a brief instant. If Ino had blinked she would have missed it.

Sakura slowed her pace by half her normal warm-up standard when her chest began hurting but continued with her run nevertheless. It was because of her chest that she didn't see him coming, and that she didn't run for the hills at his approach. He was clever, as usual, about the way he did things, remaining slightly out of sight until she was practically right next to him, in which time he casually called out,

"Sakura."

This caused the girl to stop dead in her tracks, her breath still heightened and a light blush from the exercise staining her cheeks the same pink as her hair. She had to turn slightly to get his whole figure in her line of sight, and her face abruptly darkened a tinge. "Shit," she whispered.

Sasuke stood with his hands in his pockets, looking very composed and very handsome, somehow outdoing the traditional school uniform with his face and body. He wore his tie loosely around his neck, his shirt slightly unbuttoned and wrinkling in a few places, but it only added to his roguish look all the more. She, in her sweat pants and stained uniform T-shirt, simply felt inadequate. She hated that feeling. Not to mention she hated the way he was just staring at her, waiting for her to say something. He was the one who talked to her first. He should say something right?

Was he freaked out? Again Sakura's heart sank, remembering how he _knew_ about her. Was this about..._ that_?

"Y-yes?" she asked in a breathless whisper. Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed the other members of the track team (mostly female) staring at her in front of Sasuke.

"Sakura," Sasuke said again, but Sakura noticed his voice faltered slightly, and he looked as if he might change his mind altogether on... whatever he was thinking. Sakura could hardly stand all the silence. Sasuke had to say something. Anything would be better than the silence.

Finally he spoke. "Go out with me."

Sakura blinked, a roaring in her ears preventing her from hearing the entire thing. "What?"

"Go out with me." Sasuke's voice was unhesitating.

_This is a trick._ That was the first thing Sakura thought. The second was _what?_ The third was much longer and more drawn out in her mind. Sasuke's abrupt interest in her only began when he knew about her, right? Then this was... Sasuke was...

He was pitying her.

A red hot heat spread up from Sakura's dying heart and into her eyes like wild fire. Oh, she would not be pitied. Even by Sasuke. Perhaps he thought this was some kind of charity: go out with the dying girl, seem like a hero. In any case, Sakura couldn't fathom any other reason for this abrupt confession other than that he was pitying her condition and attempting to... she didn't know what. But it didn't matter!

She would _not be pitied!_

Sakura had worked hard to make herself the best at everything, to work hard and live life as if she wasn't going to die. The boy before her sought to end that by taking her on some kind of _pity date_ and she would have _none of it!_

With a snarl, Sakura reeled backwards, drawing up her fist from behind her. "Don't be so full of yourself!" she screamed before socking the boy across the jaw so hard that he teetered on one leg before falling to his knees, clutching his face and looking back up at her with wide eyes.

"I won't be pitied by you, you asshole!" Sakura yelled in his face before throwing a leg in his chest and sending him down all the way.

Shrieks of Sasuke's and Sakura's name echoed across the field but Sakura left before hearing any of them. She was too enraged to care anyway.

**Chapter 8 end. **

**This one took quite a bit of time. Thinking of how to get things moving is HARD! But I should be on another role... let's hope...**


	9. Sweets

**This one came to me rather quickly. Things are flowing now, thank God. In any case, if you like it, review it. I try to reply to all the people who review, so if you'd like to chat, let me know. I like people. **

**Oh, and enjoy.**

Chapter 9.

Naruto booked down the long hallways of the school, completely in disbelief, and half-shocked, half-all-knowing before he slowed down in front of the nurse's office. He took a few seconds to catch his breath before sliding open the door to the infirmary to brace himself to see his best friend. Sasuke looked absolutely hilarious.

His famously gorgeous hair was flipped recklessly about his face, half of it curving oddly in the back and the other scattered in front of his face, which was covered in the red track dirt. His normally pristine clothes were also covered in the rust-colored earth that was traditionally in the track field. On his face was an ice pack and just above his jaw a pretty shiner that even Naruto was proud of.

Sasuke wasn't surprised by Naruto's hasty entrance. "You taught her to punch."

Naruto smirked knowingly. "So she could kick asses of all the creepers after her."

Sasuke grunted and moved the ice pack up slightly, wincing at the pain in his mouth. "She kicked me too."

Naruto burst into laughter. "That's my girl! I always told her to double-tap!"

Here's where Sasuke's calm look turned into a scowl. "It's not funny, loser."

Naruto continued laughing for a moment before suddenly getting serious. "You're right. You were a fucker to her. She told me what you said. You wanted to give her a _pity date_?"

At this Sasuke looked up and blinked slowly at Naruto. "No."

Naruto knew better than to think Sasuke would lie to him. Lying just wasn't Sasuke's thing. Sasuke was way too direct of a person to try to hide shit, especially from Naruto.

"So then... what is this? Are you trying something? You fucking everyone?"

Sasuke shook his head slowly.

Naruto licked his lips. "Are you trying to fuck her?"

"I'm not trying to fuck anyone!" Sasuke snapped angrily, gritting his teeth. He was leaned forward in his chair but slid back slowly and looked out the window, getting that distant look in his eyes that Naruto couldn't stand. Like this Sasuke was unreadable, but Naruto knew that like this was when Sasuke wanted to be read the most. Naruto made a blind stab in the dark.

"So... you like her?"

Naruto saw something in Sasuke's face shift, and then he shrugged. "I suppose."

Naruto took the words like a jackhammer to the face, almost falling off his feet. He darted to where Sasuke was sitting and spun him around in his chair so he could see his face. "REALLY?"

Sasuke winced and shoved Naruto away in the same instant with the hand that wasn't holding the ice pack. "Yeah, you loser. Is it so unbelievable?"

"Fuck yeah!" Naruto screamed, taking a few steps backward and falling down in one of the chairs opposite the dark-haired kid. "You're like frigid man of the year! I thought you were like asexual or something!"

Sasuke didn't know what to think of that. He certainly had never given his sexuality any thought before, but now he found himself genuinely confused by it. In all his life he had never thought about sex or its implications. He had never thought of anyone romantically _ever_. But Sakura certainly was having him rethink everything. Even now with her smiling face playing in his mind like a weird video, he couldn't help but feel a little bit lighter.

"She's just... weird..." Sasuke murmured under his breath before again repositioning the ice pack on his face.

Naruto could hardly believe the words that were coming out of Sasuke's mouth. Naruto had never seen such a resigned look on Sasuke's face before. It was a look that both confused and delighted Naruto because if the blonde didn't know any better, he would have mistaken that look for someone in the throes of puppy love.

Now Naruto was unusually over-protective of Sakura. She was his best friend, her condition made her especially more vulnerable than normal people, despite the fact that she always assured him she was fine, and she was very pretty. More times than he could count, he'd beaten up guys who were after her without her knowing about it. But Sasuke was also Naruto's best friend. Sasuke could take care of himself, that much was sure, but Naruto knew that inside Sasuke was a mess. He had every right to be, but Sasuke, as his brother had told Naruto a long time ago, was "pure." Sasuke's temperament could be easily swayed either toward productivity or toward complete destruction. Sasuke, in Naruto's mind, needed protecting just as much as Sakura, especially if he was suddenly getting serious about girls. People had enough trouble with women even without Sasuke's past. It was unsettling.

"I... don't know who I should protect," Naruto mumbled mostly to himself, scratching the back of his head in genuine confusion.

"What?"

Naruto looked up to Sasuke and saw that weird look in his eyes again. Sasuke was determined. For some reason, it kind of freaked Naruto out. "You're serious, aren't you?"

Sasuke gave his version of a snort, which was something akin to a soft grunt. "Since when am I not serious?"

Rather than diminish his own thinking power by trying to find a time when Sasuke joked about anything, Naruto changed the subject. "So what do you plan on doing now? She hates you. You know that right? She thinks you're screwing around with her."

Sasuke again surprised Naruto by looking thoughtful. His expression, for once, was honest yet still calculating. Though it was also completely lost. Sasuke had no idea what he was doing. This was probably the only area in his life that he was clueless on. Naruto couldn't suppress a wide grin stretching across his face.

"You're screwed."

"Shut up, loser."

Naruto leaned back easily in his chair. "I could help ya..."

Sasuke raised an eyebrow.

"In exchange for a few pointers here and there..."

"Pointers?"

Naruto leaned forward abruptly. "I need help in English! Come on man! I'll help you out with Sakura if you help me out! I'm faaaiiiillling!"

Sasuke smirked. "Fine."

Sakura had locked herself in the girl's bathroom and hadn't come out since. It was around three in the afternoon. Sakura had slapped... hit... punched... _destroyed_ Sasuke only an hour ago.

"Oh, God, I'm such an _idiot_," she whispered to herself, closing her eyes and hitting her head with her fists repeatedly. She couldn't account for how uncharacteristically _angry _she had been at Sasuke for looking down at her. Sakura tried hard not to be overly emotional. She had had a problem with crying at everything when she was younger, sitting and doing nothing, and being generally inactive _all the time_. She remembered having every excuse. She was terminally ill, alone, and had self-esteem issues all at the same time. No one ever blamed her for crying. Until she met Naruto, that is. Naruto was one of those people who were strong no matter what. It had inspired her to be a stronger person to the extent where she became obsessive with people _not _taking pity on her.

Then Sasuke, the guy she had liked for God knew how long, had managed to tear everything she had every worked for down in one fell swoop. He knew she was dying, and he'd _pitied_ her enough to take on some kind of _pity date._

Just thinking of it made her both angry and sick all at the same time. Angry because that was such a _douche_ thing of Sasuke to do and sick because Sakura had flown off the handle and _completely overreacted. _

"Now, I'm dead," she thought despondently, holding her head in her hands. Not only did the guy she liked think she was pitiful, now he must think she was psychotic too. "Dammit!"

"Sakura?"

It was Ino's voice outside the door.

"Y-yeah?" Sakura asked before thinking. She cringed at herself, not wanting to be bothered.

"Oh, God, there you are! Jesus Christ, what happened?"

"Nothing..." Sakura tried to mumble but Ino didn't seem to be in the mood for talking through a door.

"Will you open this damn thing?" Ino cried, banging with her fist on the metal panes.

Sakura sighed and opened the door by quickly unlocking it and throwing it open with her foot. Ino sped in, somehow Hinata hot on her heels. Sakura hadn't had any idea the shy girl was even near the door. 

"Hinata!" Sakura gasped as she bowed quickly as she entered.

"I-Ino said I should come," Hinata said in her whisper-like voice.

"Because we _just have_ to know what the hell happened! I mean you didn't just _hit him._ Like you _clobbered him_!"

Sakura cringed.

"A-and kicked him too," Hinata added as well.

The cringe deepened.

Ino grabbed Sakura by her shoulders, forcing the shorter girl to look into Ino's bright blue eyes. "So _what happened?_"

Sakura attempted to look away but Ino's hold on her shoulders forced her to meet her friend in the eye. From the corner of her vision, Sakura saw Hinata, looking apprehensively at Ino, as if not wanting the blonde girl to be so harsh. This was typical behavior of Hinata, always peaceable. Sakura couldn't imagine what a sweet, passive girl like her saw in Naruto, the brash loud-mouthed fighter that he was. Then again, Sakura couldn't put herself much past Naruto in this situation. Like Naruto, she overreacted too, didn't she?

"I.. just hit him," she said in barely a whisper. The shame at her own statement made her cheeks flush.

"But _why?" _Ino prodded. "Did he say something to you?"

Sakura thought quietly, her mind turning over his words...

_Go out with me._

They had been almost like an order. So typical of Sasuke. Even in pity, he couldn't be just a little kind about it. Sakura suddenly felt a little bit better about hitting him.

"He said... oh, I don't know! He just pissed me off, okay?" Sakura abruptly shoved Ino back so much so that Hinata had to catch her before she fell.

"Sakura!" they both gasped at her.

But Sakura was far too desperate to keep what he'd said hidden that she knew she had to act a little bit fiery now. Her friends before her were far too curious for anything but another overreacting performance. As it was, Sakura could be in a lot of trouble. She knew that hitting the school's heartthrob was basically a death wish anyway. Sasuke had a lot of very, _very _protective admirers (and Sakura used to be the most crazy of them all back when she was younger) and they would _kill _her if they found her now. But before her were Ino and Hinata, two safe people. They had every right to be curious. Sakura couldn't tell them everything though. There was too much she just didn't want them to know. So she had to somehow be both vague and honest at the same time.

"I'm telling you that whatever he said doesn't matter!" Sakura continued, trying to be very forceful. "I hit him and that's that. Now can we _please_ drop it?" She looked, almost challengingly at the girls before her. Ino's pretty pink mouth was half open and Hinata looked a bit frightened of Sakura but still kept her ground.

Ino sighed, knowing she'd lost this fight. "Fine," she mumbled. "I get it, you don't want to talk about it." There was a brief, awkward pause before she smirked at Sakura. "I can't believe you kicked him too."

Sakura groaned and held her head in her hands. "I'm such an idiot!"

Ino and Hinata laughed sympathetically, rubbing Sakura's back and telling her it'd somehow be alright. Well, Hinata was telling her it'd be alright. Ino was almost hysterically laughing her little ass off, trying to be supportive but unable to hold it in.

"I mean," Ino said in between giggles, "you _really hit him_!"

"_Shut up, Ino!" _Sakura cried, but she couldn't help to smile at Ino's beet red face.

Sakura could only thank whatever God out there that it was at least the weekend. She could return home, get a little shut-eye and hang out with her friends the next day. Sunday was always a good day for Sakura. It made her feel more fresh, like everything bad in her life might just get a better, like maybe everyone else would have such a good Sunday that they would forget the whole business about her hitting (and then kicking) Sasuke.

This, of course, was not likely.

Ino and Hinata had at least invited her out for that Sunday to sit at a sweets cafe and just pig out together. Sakura, when she was younger, had been obsessive with diets (despite her doctors' constant reminders to eat healthily) to improve the way she looked. Again Naruto had changed that. Spending so much time with him had taught her not to give a freaking rat's ass about how skinny she was. Sakura was muscular naturally anyway. Trying to be a size zero when she was a size six wouldn't help her anyway. So she had no objections with eating to her heart's content. Especially sweets!

At the cafe she and her friends regularly attended, there were enough sweets to feed even the most obese individual, which Sakura was determined to become, since her chances of dating were slim to none anyway. Especially since she'd completely hit-

No, I'm not going to think of it, Sakura thought to herself as she approached the cafe. The place was brightly lit and glittering from the side of the street, the bright pink neon lights of the sign above blinking and enticing customers from their shopping to have some sweets. There were little tables and booths set up inside, and each person paid by the hour, so Sakura, Ino and Hinata could sit and eat sweets for three hours at the sweets buffet for a fraction of the price it would cost to buy each sweet individually.

Sakura paid one of the waiters, a very cute dark-haired boy in a tuxedo, and asked if they were serving the chocolate cakes today. Sakura loved chocolate. The waiter replied in the affirmative, giving her a small wink and inviting her to help herself. Sakura smiled back at him as well, brushing a small bit of hair out of her face. Well, _he _certainly seemed nice.

Sakura followed the waiter to her own table, but Ino and Hinata waved Sakura over from their table.

"Oh, my friends are already here," Sakura said to the boy.

He turned around and smiled at her again. "Well, if there's _anything _you need, don't hesitate to ask." He took her hand and kissed it like a prince. "My name is Sai."

Sakura felt a little heat rising to her cheeks. "Oh.. thanks!" And she ran like hell (well, more or less walked) away. She couldn't afford to be gawking at some waiter. She had to... remain focused on track! _Or getting better,_ she thought with a little pang.

After all, who would want a girlfriend who would be dead in a year or two?

"Hey Sakura!" Ino said as she approached the table. "We've already started eating! Aren't these cakes adorable?"

Sakura looked down to the chocolate pastry sitting like a pristine little angel on Ino's plate and felt a smile come across her face. That's right! Food solves _everything!_

And it was time to pig out!

Sakura returned from the pastry buffet with three times the amount of cake Ino had. Ino gawked. "What?" Sakura asked. "I have every right to live in the moment! And I want some _cake!"_

Sakura began eating and was almost lost in the tirade of bubbles that came from her soul just from one taste of the delectable dessert! She was so consumed with eating that she didn't hear Hinata get a text. She didn't hear Hinata say that Naruto was coming to the pastry shop. She didn't hear Hinata say, in that damn quiet voice, that Naruto was bringing two of his friends. She didn't hear Hinata, so she didn't think that _maybe_ one of those friends would _possibly_ be the kid she'd punched yesterday.

Which, of course, it was.

Sakura, _**thankfully**_, was taking a break from eating when the boys arrived. She was nursing a cup of warm coffee with lots of cream and sugar in it when from behind she heard Naruto's voice, louder than an air-horn, booming out, "YO HINATA! SAKURA!"

Sakura spun, the coffee cup still in her hands, and leaped to her feet in half a second flat. Naruto ran past Sakura to wrap his big arms around Hinata and squeeze with all his might, leaving Sakura the view of Shikamaru, Naruto's long-time buddy, who smirked with his hands in his pockets at Ino, and then Sasuke, who was sporting a dark bruise just below the left side of his jaw.

~_Five Minutes Earlier~_

Their destination made Sasuke cringe. "I don't like sweets."

Naruto sighed and slapped his head with the palm of his hand. "We're not there for the sweets, okay? We're there for the girls! _The girls!_"

Behind them, Shikamaru sighed lazily, wiping off a stray bit of dust from his green T-shirt. "I don't even know why I'm here. Women are too complicated. I thought you said we were going to the electronics store, Naruto."

"Yeah, after, after!" Naruto yelled over his shoulder, then he looked back to Sasuke, looping an arm over his shoulder and whispering, "So when we get there, just sit act like you want to be there, okay?"

Sasuke gave Naruto what his version of an incredulous look was, which was a deep scowl.

"Oh, come _on!_" Naruto implored. And then dropped back down to the whisper. "_Sakura's gonna be there too, ya know! You can talk to her then_!"

Sasuke gave Naruto a look out of the corner of his eye as they stepped out of the train and onto the street. From what he remembered, the sweets cafe was pretty close, not more than a few moments away. He didn't like the feeling in the pit of his chest though. It worried him. It was like someone was pouring ice water down his back, and it was somehow seeping into his skin. It was uncomfortable but felt almost like adrenaline, so it couldn't have been that bad of a feeling. Adrenaline gave him power, he thought, trying to calm himself. There's no reason for him to have it unless this was... nervousness?

Naturally the fact that she'd forcibly struck him yesterday didn't help. Perhaps she hated him now... for thinking he was pitying her. Somehow, he'd find the words to explain he wasn't. Even to this second, Sasuke couldn't believe the words that had come out of his mouth. _Go out with me._ Sasuke's stomach drew up into more knots. He'd barely ever spoken a few words to her, despite their mutual friend being Naruto, and he'd just said _that_. He had no idea why the words just fell out like that. What kind of reaction did he expect from that? A quiet nod of consent?

And then she'd _punched him_. Another knot joined the rest. Sakura had pulled an impressive right cross over the side of Sasuke's face and then stormed off, enraged. She must hate him...

He cringed inwardly but he was careful to keep his face impassive. For the umpteenth time, Sakura's face sprang into his head, and the feeling increased tenfold.

"What am I supposed to say?" Sasuke asked Naruto finally.

Naruto looked a little bit puzzled at the question. "You mean to Sakura?"

"What else would I mean, you loser?"

"Hey, don't call me a loser! I totally beat you at Tekken last night!"

Sasuke scoffed. "I let you win."

Which set Naruto off completely, the blonde boy challenging Sasuke at everything under the sun, including some sort of race to get to the cafe first. Sasuke, this time, chose to ignore the challenges themselves and bask in the normalcy of the situation. Naruto was yelling, Sasuke was ignoring, this was right. Thinking about... Sakura all the time had him mentally spinning in circles. Naruto was much simpler. Sasuke _knew_ the extent of his brotherly love for the blonde idiot. With Sakura, things were just... weird...

"Anyway, they have coffee at the cafe, so just have that instead of sweets!" Naruto was saying as they approached the place. Sasuke found himself holding a hand lightly to his chest, as if trying to calm it down.

~_Present_~

It didn't look too bad, actually, almost completely faded, and with the way his hair hung in his face half the time, it could have been mistaken for a shadow created by his dark locks. But the hard face was it was a _bruise._ It was a bruise and Sakura had been the one to give it to him.

The girl leaped to her feet and said all in a rush, "SorryIhavetogo!."

She made to gather her bag and set down the coffee when Naruto, that idiot, caught her shoulder. "Hey, Sakura, you didn't say hi to me!"

"Havetogo," Sakura said in a rush again, pulling away from him and running headlong into Sasuke's chest. She nearly fell back simply from the force of her crash, but his hand shot out, steadying her by one of her thin arms. For an agonizing second, their eyes locked: his slitted brown ones with her ever wide greens. Sakura felt her heart beat a little faster, dangerously fast as she stared up at him. In his eyes was a look that simply perplexed her. He looked as if he...

The second passed, and Sakura flinched away from the boy as if he had struck her, her face red from embarrassment. All the awkward memories came back in a flood, and before even Ino could say anything, Sakura was making up lies about homework that she suddenly remembered, and that she _had. to. go. _

And then she was gone.

If only she had stayed though.

She would have been able to see Sasuke's face, pale and sweating, staring down at his hands as if they were on fire. An experimental flex of his fingers sent another charge of electricity up his arm and he turned around to catch the last glimpse of Sakura's hair, flitting out of view.

"Yo, Sasuke, you alive over there?"

Sasuke turned, making eye contact with Naruto, who despite sitting down next to Hinata, looked as if he was about to rush to Sasuke's side. He hadn't missed the exchange.

"I..." Sasuke said to Naruto only, "want to get something to eat."

Ino, not getting _anything_ that was going on said in a cheerful voice, "Well, we're at a cafe! Help yourself!"

Sasuke shook his head as he was turning around to leave, coincidentally going the same way Sakura had left. "I don't like sweets."

Under his breath, Naruto smirked and muttered, "Oh, yeah, you do, dumbass.."

**Chapter 9 end. **

**Yeah, Sasuke, she can be sweet when she's not owning your ass. **

**Again if you liked it, review it. **


	10. Nonsensical

**Chapter 10. **

Sakura couldn't explain how undeniably fatigued she felt while practically running down the street away from the cafe. Seeing Sasuke had jolted her heart like a defibrillator, and now she felt off-kilter, almost out of breath. The feeling frightened her.

She stopped running, slowing to a walk that slowed again to barely moving as she leaned against a wall of a tall, gray building beside her. There were people everywhere, scuffling around her, bumping into her, talking, laughing, chatting on cell-phones. Children were crying, or whining about something off in the distance. There might have been a park nearby that Sakura couldn't make out amongst the din of the crowd, but she could smell the hints of the running water of a fountain along with smoke and fried food. No one seemed to notice how pale she was, or how wide and confused her eyes were. She reached hurriedly into her bag, pulling out a small silver plate, similar in design to a flat calculator, and pressed it to her chest. The small object beeped repeatedly, warning beeps then projected Sakura's current heart-rate on the flat metallic screen. It was dangerously fast.

Sakura had to find a place where she could relax, a place where the crowd wasn't stealing her air.

She stumbled onward, looking hazily for a small shop to enter or another cafe where she could sit down. Preferably she wanted a place where she could be completely alone, like a changing room at a department store... But there was nothing around save for gray business buildings and the roar of traffic. A bike messenger abruptly passed Sakura, clipping her slightly off the side of her long-sleeved shirt and tearing the fabric. She cried out in surprise and fell down.

The crowd, this time, did not completely ignore her. An old woman and a boy with his girlfriend stopped to see if she was okay, helped her to her feet. Sakura thanked them all, assuring them she was fine and attempting to smile.

"Hey, are you okay?" the boy asked, noticing how a few drops of sweat beaded on her forehead and the unhealthy pallor of her skin. "Do you need to go to the hospital?"

Sakura's chest clenched just at the word _hospital_ and she shook her head vigorously, no. If she went to the hospital, they wouldn't let her leave for days, until Dr. Tsunade would be satisfied that Sakura was in prime medical condition. Sakura couldn't have that. The track meet was that coming weekend. She had to be in tip top shape for it.

Sakura knew that whatever was happening now wasn't an attack. Not a normal attack, anyway. There could be any number of things wrong with her at this point. She just had to find a place to relax just for a few minutes.

Sakura's hazy eyes scanned the crowds again, searching for reprieve when the sign for a public bathroom caught her eye. She hated public bathrooms. The ones in Konoha were always generally clean, but Sakura usually despised the smells of the places, the types of people who were there, the dirtiness of the floors.

But this wasn't the time to be prude.

Again thanking those who had stopped to help her, Sakura made her way slowly to the bathroom, stumbling through the door and out of the busy crowd. The place looked deserted. She thanked her lucky stars and walked very slowly to the counter, running water through her fingers and into her hair, trying to wash away the sweat that had gathered on her head and neck. It wasn't long before the bathroom door, closed for a good ten minutes, abruptly opened.

Sakura didn't look to see who was coming in, her eyes focused on her own reflection and how unhealthy she looked in comparison to what she'd been that morning. Sakura didn't even hear the footsteps coming closer and closer. There were three sets of them.

"Sakura."

At the sound of her own name, Sakura turned in surprise and blinked. Her name sounded almost foreign to her coming from such an unexpected source. "Karin?"

Karin's arms were folded over her smooth chest. Her red hair hung loosely down her shoulders and back, kicking out slightly at the sides where her wire-rimmed glasses interfered with the flow of her hair. Her black short shorts and long-sleeved shirt complimented her figure nicely and was offset by a pair of black boots clinking against the tile floor. She approached Sakura like a lioness, calculating, cold, and somehow angry. No, Karin looked rather furious. At her sides were two other girls that Sakura recognized from school, girls who were longtime friends of Karin. They looked to be equally pissed as the their leader but more reserved than Karin's blazing eyes.

"Sakura, you sure are clever," Karin said, her voice quivering from rage. "To think this whole time, you acted so aloof to him! And then you go and _punch_ him out of the blue! _Then_ hit on him! It's the weirdest technique I've ever heard of!"

Sakura, her mind muddled from lack enough oxygen, didn't understand the statement and merely blinked in response, her breathing increasing along with the light heaving of her chest.

"You're not even going to deny it?" Karin hissed through clenched teeth. "I'll have you know that Sasuke was going to ask _me_ out the other day! You're too late to try to get him now!"

Sakura swallowed deeply in her throat, a wave of nausea sweeping over her and limiting her breathing further, which caused her to pant even more. Another bead of sweat trickled down her neck. "I don't... I don't feel good," she said slowly, her words slurring.

Karin abruptly leaped forward, snatching Sakura's arm in a vice-like grip and pushing the smaller girl to her knees. "Don't you try to lie your way out of this, you slut! I saw how you were at the cafe! I can't believe you!"

Something broke in Sakura the second her knees touched the floor. The sudden jolt flipped an abrupt switch in Sakura's chest, and without warning, her brain began sending messages to Sakura's lungs, demanding more air, demanding more oxygen. Sakura's lungs in turn responded, sending the girl into a fit of panting and heaving for air, but no matter how much she sucked in, her brain demanded more of her body.

"Karin, she looks sick!" one of the girls cried at Karin's side.

But Karin didn't care, grabbing Sakura by the collar of her shirt and bringing her closer to Karin could yell in her face, "I don't ever want to see you around Sasuke again, you got that!"

Sakura was scared but not of Karin. She couldn't care less about what Karin did to her. Sakura didn't know what on earth was happening to her body though. She felt sick, she couldn't breathe, but this was still different from the normal attacks. If her heart was stopping, she'd be unconscious now. This was different, and Sakura couldn't decide if it was worse or not. The paralyzing fear sent hot tears to her eyes, which squeezed out in big, fat drops, spilling from her eyes and down her face.

"Karin, stop it!" the other of Karin's friends cried. "I think she's hurt or something!"

Again Karin didn't listen. Hoisting Sakura up by her collar, Karin threw her with such force against the sink that when Sakura's head collided with the adjacent mirror, she saw stars and almost passed out, but somehow the heavy panting in her heart kept her conscious. Now she felt angry at the tears rushing down her face, knowing Karin thought they were out of fear of her.

But Sakura couldn't stop them as she stumbled backwards, hitting one of the bathroom stalls with a hunched back before Karin shoved her roughly against them. Holding Sakura's head by her pink hair, Karin pulled up viciously until Sakura screamed out in pain, the roots of Sakura's scalp stretching to their limits, some of the hair flitting before Sakura's eyes and onto the dirty bathroom floor.

Karin seemed to almost have lost her mind, so bent on destroying Sakura until nothing else was visible to her. Perhaps it was because Sakura had always seemed to be a step ahead of Karin. Perhaps it was because Sakura was smart, athletic, genuinely kind, and very popular among everyone at school.

Karin had always felt a kind of hatred for the pink-haired girl, but when Sasuke had gotten close to Karin, just a few days ago, perhaps she had taken that as a true opportunity to get closer to the boy she liked. Karin was smart though. She knew that Sasuke was the aloof type, that she'd have to play her cards right to get the dark-haired boy into her hands, but she didn't expect the sudden rivalry with Sakura. Because Karin had seen what Sakura hadn't.

Just as Sakura left the cafe, Karin and her friends had passed the place, and Karin had gotten a good look at Sasuke's face, staring after Sakura with a look so akin to longing that Karin almost lost her mind just staring into those dark eyes. Sasuke's face was normally beautiful but depressingly vacant of emotion. But in a single second, Karin saw the look of a boy enthralled in the effect of a passing scent, as if he were under a spell. His face, that angelic face, had looked disturbed, then recklessly happy, then almost lusting before in the very next second falling back into its normal, expressionless state. Karin would have given anything to have Sasuke think about _her_ with that kind of expression washing over his features like a crimson wave. But Karin knew already that he was thinking about Sakura.

He was thinking about Sakura, and Karin was almost dying from jealousy.

So Karin, her eyes wide as saucers and filled with raw, rage-induced tears, struck Sakura. She hit her hard across the face, a slap. It echoed throughout the bathroom along with Sakura's surprised and pained cry followed by the sound of her falling back to her knees.

"Karin!" one of the friends screamed again, this time so loud that Karin was brought from under her stupor. She looked down to Sakura, a heaving heap on the floor, hot tears running down her face, which was punctuated with a reddening slap mark adorning her cheek. The smaller girl looked like she was hyperventilating, but Karin didn't care about that. Whatever was happening to Sakura, she didn't want to be blamed for it.

"We're leaving!" Karin yelled to her friends, brushing past them quickly to leave the deserted bathroom and to leave Sakura still on the floor.

Sasuke had lost Sakura almost as quickly as he had gotten determined to find her. The streets were a stretched out labyrinth of narrow roads, bustling people, and neon lights, all of which were blinking on frantically with the approaching of sunset, another distraction that made it all the harder to find such a small girl in the crowd. No matter how eagerly he searched, he couldn't seem to find Sakura in the midst of the crowds and buildings.

There was absolutely no sign of the girl, though Sasuke's eyes were keen and fixated upon finding her. Deep frustration began settling in the pit of his gut, formulating into a dam of potential energy just begging to be released. Again Sasuke couldn't quite account for the feeling. It was the same rush of adrenaline that he felt when engaging in a fight at the dojo, or with Naruto. There was no place for it since he was under no attack. However, the feeling did make his limbs move quicker.

Then a bustling beside him and the sound of a familiar voice caused his ears, honed by that unnatural adrenaline, to perk up.

"Come on! Hurry up!" It was Karin's voice, high with fear and anger. Beside her, two of her friends scuffled, one of them repeatedly looking over her shoulder back the way they had come.

"Karin, maybe we should go back," one of them said worriedly. "She looked awful! Was it really okay to leave her in the bathroom?"

"I don't care, alright? Move it! We're not going to go back for her! So what if she looked a little sick?"

Sasuke turned on his heel, hiding behind a few people for cover, while his ears strained to hear what one of the other girls was saying. He didn't quite make it out, but Karin's voice, drenched with guilt and high with emotion, sounded across the expanse of the crowd like a fog-horn.

"Sakura Haruno is none of our concern! We didn't do anything!"

"But Karin!"

"I'm not going back, so just-"

But that was all Sasuke heard before stop and bolted in the other direction, speeding against the grain of the crowd in the direction Karin and her friends had come.

Sakura hated that she didn't faint.

It was an odd feeling to long to faint, but she hated being so damn terrified. Salty tears full of anguish crawled down her face one after the other, falling down to her fingers which were tightly clutching at the fabric of her shirt. Her heart would not cooperate, and her mind wouldn't let her pass out. It was much better to faint and then be lost to sleep. Whether she died or was revived never mattered when she was sleeping. There was no fear when she was sleeping.

But she didn't pass out, and enduring the mind-numbing _fear _was almost too much. Sakura hated it. She hated feeling the pain and the fear and the loneliness. On the floor of a dirty public bathroom. Sakura clenched her teeth and felt the fear melt under the feeling of disgust and uselessness. How ridiculous. Dying on the floor of a public bathroom with no dignity, no friends to send her off, and no one to help her. How fucking ridiculous!

She gasped and let a hack full of spit fall out her open mouth and onto the floor. She spat, quite literally, in the face of such of fate. Her breathing, despite her act of rebellion toward fate in general, did not stabilize. Sakura kept panting, and crying.

She leaned her head downward, her head spinning from the movement, and her vision began to slowly spot before her eyes. If fainting was gonna happen, it would happen now. Surprisingly, Sakura did not feel better with the enterprise of fainting so close to her doorstep. Fainting would involve her face hitting that dirty floor.

She tried to steady herself, planting a hand on the tiles just under the lines of sinks against the wall. Then the door, echoing like a hammer in a cave, opened. Light poured in from the outside, so bright that when Sakura looked up, she had to squint against the brightness.

"Sakura!"

That voice...

There was a tall body framed in a halo of light towering above her, dark hair billowing from the wind the change in pressure of the room created. Sakura felt her head loll slightly to the side, the only show she could muster to express her surprise. She was still breathing heavy, still clutching her chest with her hands.

"What's wrong?"

All at once, there were two very firm, pale hands locking onto her shoulders, and a face was so close to hers that if she leaned forward, their foreheads would touch. She could see him very clearly at this close range, his face, always so expressionless, a mask of worry. Sasuke, those dark eyes never leaving hers, put a hand to her head and wiped the beads of sweat from her face.

"What's happening?" he asked her.

She couldn't respond, her panting only escalating with his presence.

What in the fuck was Sasuke Uchiha doing in a girls' public bathroom, kneeling on that nasty floor next to her? His jeans, her frantic mind raced, would surely get ruined on such a nasty floor. He didn't seem to care, placing his fingers on the sides of her jaw to tilt her head up, forcing her eyes to lock with his.

"Sakura."

It was just her name, yet from it came a billion questions, which swirled around in the vastness of his eyes like souls in the River Styx. Sakura knew she must be hallucinating in order to see so much emotion fill those eyes, and she blinked harshly to try to regain her sanity.

"Sakura," he repeated, shaking her slightly.

"My.. can't breathe..." she whispered in between heaves. Another round of tears fell from her eyes and she couldn't begin to describe her agony. Not only was she having problems with her body, the hottest boy in her school had a front row seat to it all. The humiliation was indescribable. "But," she managed to gasp. "It's different... I..."

Sasuke stopped her from talking by putting a hand over her mouth, only for a second, so her lips stopped moving but she could still draw in breath.

"Sakura." That deep timber of his voice murmuring her name caused a series of shivers to spin down her spine, but that also could have been the result of her flickering vision and deep sighs. "Listen to me," he said, so quietly that she forced herself to still her breathing to listen.

"You're having a panic attack."

Her eyes shifted back up to his, questioning. "Pah-panic...?"

"Your brain does not think it has enough oxygen. Its telling your body to make more. But you don't need it, you need carbon dioxide."

Sakura blinked, another hot tear squeezing out of her eyes and down her face. "A p-panic attack? I've... never..."

"I'll go get a paper bag. If you breathe into it, you'll calm down."

He rose from his knees, his hands leaving her face and shoulders, his warmth receding. Sakura panicked. If he was leaving, she'd be alone again, in the dirty bathroom, without his warmth or protection. "N-no!" she gasped, grabbing his arm with shaking fingers. Even the sleeve of his long-sleeved black shirt seemed to radiate an unnatural warmth. He stopped moving, sinking back down to her level, meeting her eyes with his dark ones.

"What?" he asked in such a soft voice.

"I-I don't want to be... alone."

He seemed to pause, looking down at her, struggling with himself. Sakura lowered her head, clutching the soft fabric of his clothes and feeling both ashamed and afraid at the same time. How like a weak fool she must seem to him.

He knelt back down in front of her, taking her head in his hands with such gentleness that she felt as if feathers were caressing her skin. With a slow, deliberate movement, he guided her head to his chest, folding his arms across her back to keep her firmly in place. "Breathe slowly," he instructed. "No matter how off it feels, breathe as slow as you can."

Sakura could feel her heart-rate quicken with excitement, her eyes wide and unseeing into the black fabric of his shirt, while her body savored the feeling of his warm hands and arms. The only reason she could accept any of this was because she assumed she was passed out. She was already unconscious and this was some kind of strange, unearthly dream. She was fine with that explanation for now, and she felt herself calming down in his embrace. Her tears were wetting his shirt, her fingers wrinkling the fabric, and she accepted it and wasn't embarrassed of it simply because she truly believed he wasn't there.

His voice was so deep and low that despite the hollow, tile walls, it did not echo when he spoke to her in hushed tones. "Breathe. Stay calm. I've got you."

She did as instructed, and she lost track of time, only realizing that it was passing because she felt herself calm down, felt her own tears dry up, and slowly yet surely her mind began to function as normal.

The illusion of Sasuke, however, did not disappear. He was still there, firm and completely silent except for the rhythmic beating of his heart. Sakura almost began to panic that he was real, but when her heart started to hammer in her chest again, Sasuke's voice said soothingly, "Keep calm." And she had no choice but to obey. She had to obey and accept the reality that this was probably the most embarrassing thing that had ever happened to her.

She shut her eyes so tight that even when she was completely stable, and even when Sasuke began to pull away to look at her, she held them shut.

"What happened to you? It was Karin, right?"

Sakura's eyes snapped open, shock masking her features, while her pink mouth parted in surprise. He was staring down at her, his eyes now alight with a very frightening anger that seemed to blaze so brilliantly that it could burn her thoughts right out of her head and into his. To prevent this from happening, she averted her gaze, staring at the tiles under the sinks.

"Tell me," he urged, his voice darkening. "She did this to you, right? Look." He put a hand over the red mark where Karin had slapped her, the red blotch marring her normally pale skin, and she flinched in pain at the touch. "Sakura, tell me."

"It was a... a misunderstanding," she said in barely a whisper.

His eyes narrowed into slits, obviously not believing her, but with a soft sight, she sensed her consented to leave the subject be for a while.

"H-How," she stammered slowly, "How come you're in here? This is the girl's bathroom. If you're seen in here, there'll be trouble..."

He didn't respond to that, more interested in bringing both of them to their feet and urgently surveying her figure to ascertain her current physical condition. In short, she seemed fine, aside from being a tad bit woozy and tired. "I'll take you home."

She glanced upward, meeting his penetrating gaze with her wavering one. He was a giant enigma to her. Nothing he did made any sense. He knew she was dying, but he didn't shy from her. She had physically struck him not more than a few days ago, but he seemed to pursue her, even when she had so blatantly run from him today at the cafe. Now he said nothing, his face completely expressionless, but he did stare down at her, as if expectantly waiting for her to say something to fill the silence that was pregnant with high tensions and unsaid words. Sakura couldn't account for the look he was giving her and didn't even want to characterize the feelings behind the expression.

A rustling outside the door made them both jump, but Sasuke reacted quickly, throwing his back against the door so that anyone who tried to enter would be prevented from the weight of his back alone. Sakura was pulled with him, still clasped by the shoulders in his fingers like a rag-doll. She could feel her muscles slack in his grip as he leaned against the door. Outside they could hear voices.

"Who on earth would lock a bathroom?"

It was at least a pair of random girls, probably filled to the brim with milkshakes and sodas from an all-day outing with their group of friends, seeking to relieve themselves only to be met with a solid wall.

"Did you try the handle?" another one asked, their voices muffled by the metal separating them from Sasuke's back.

"M-maybe we should," Sakura started, but Sasuke stopped her talking with a hand over her mouth. The words froze in her throat and around his fingers in an instant, until he moved his hand into a single finger over her mouth, his other finger over his own, indicating silence. He leaned close to her face, so close that when he whispered, she could feel his lips gently brushing her ear and sending a rush of tingles down the left side of her face and neck.

"Hush. We don't want them knowing we're in here, right?"

Sakura's eyes widened at the contact and the words, spoken in such a playful yet sensual way that Sakura couldn't believe they had come from Sasuke's mouth. She tilted her head, only slightly, just to confirm it was _really him_, but the action caused their faces to nearly be on top of each other, their noses brushing slightly.

Sakura was met with those dark eyes again, bright and vast like a galaxy, teeming with souls. Without her noticing, his hands had left her shoulders and face, running up her neck and into her pink locks, which were tangled and messy from her ordeal. Those devilish fingers pulled ever so slightly on her hair, tilting her head back and her neck outward. The position made Sakura's heart thump so loudly in her chest, she felt obligated to gasp, whispering, "Sa-"

It was all she got out before his lips, soft and warm like the rest of him, sealed themselves over hers, silencing her again.

**Chapter 10 end. **

**Yes, giant cliff-hanger that's taken about ten chapters to get through. Nyahahhahahhaha XD.**


	11. Unsavable

**Horrible Apologies for the wait! Please enjoy!**

**Oh, and for the patients ones: the fluff is for you.**

**Chapter 11. **

Sasuke found himself strangely susceptible today, especially to those green eyes, ridiculously bright because of the tears Sakura had shed. It couldn't be helped. He'd found her alone, on her knees, one hand placed on a tile wall, the other clutched to her chest as she sat and cried, panting heavily and obviously terrified.

He'd been struck with a fear so palpable that he almost broke down himself, but some force other than his own willpower told him to remain calm. He'd rushed to her, grabbing her, and it was then that he'd seen the sheer panic in her face and eyes. Her breathing was rushed, but not overly, and the tears were a good sign. Other parts of her body were functioning normally.

Sasuke had ascertained eventually that she was having a panic attack and nothing more, probably brought on by whatever Karin had done to her. Sasuke noted with a black rage that Sakura's face and hair were much messier than what he'd remembered earlier that day.

It was those eyes though. Those horrid green eyes, that darted back and forth, clouded at times with fear then brightened with determination and reason, typical of a girl who was used to fighting against her own body. He'd been forced to look away from them before his body sprouted a mind of its own, independent of Sasuke's will, and did something to the girl.

Now they were standing, her heart calmed, her face dry and clear as it had been before. But those eyes remained to be wretchedly intriguing. Sasuke couldn't understand what on earth they were doing to his chest, but the feeling was something in between adrenaline and agony that only subsided when his arms were around her. Consequently, he chose to remain touching her, his fingers feverish from her body heat.

He felt like he needed _something_ out of this situation. After so long of living with such conflict, Sasuke felt positively _bothered_ by everything that concerned the ever illusive girl. She had punched him, she was stubborn, and she was often hospitalized. But when she fell down, she burst into laughter rather than into tears, she could quote _Hamlet_ and turn a play about revenge into a story about self-realization in less than a few minutes. And she could somehow make Sasuke pursue her, forcing him to step outside of his dark and comfortable home on a Sunday in an attempt to speak with her. Until this moment, though, Sasuke had had no idea what he would do once he'd finally gotten her alone, alone like how they were now, with her locked in his arms.

This was it. This was the moment that something had to be done. Sasuke's mind drew a blank on what to do, but his body seemed drunk off the idea of touching her, whispering to her, being gentle. When Sasuke spoke, he didn't recognize the voice. When he touched Sakura, he could hardly believe it was his own fingers, especially when he put a hand over her mouth, savoring the touch of her lips.

Lips... Pink, full, parted lips, whispering questions. They were almost as attractive as her eyes, and Sasuke's body could take no more. He let himself go, using the excuse of the girls outside the room to keep Sakura quiet, make her unable to refuse. He savored the feeling of her neck and jaw-line, finally digging his fingers into her soft hair, tangling himself in it just so he could feel her, smell her.

"Sa-"

No, she couldn't speak now. He'd moved without even realizing it, sealing her lips with his so tightly that he found he couldn't breathe. Sasuke had always said he didn't like sweet things, but the flavor in her mouth was so mind-numbingly tasty he didn't care it was laced with sugar and strawberries. In fact, he'd go as far as to say he loved it.

And he wanted more.

Pulling her closer, he let his eyes close tight just so he could feel her better. The texture of her hair, the smoothness of her face, her hot breath leaking into his mouth like a long sigh as he moved, very slowly, his mouth over hers once more. Another rush sped up his spine when her small hands clutched tightly in his shirt as they pushed and pulled each other with only their mouths.

Sasuke's eyes cracked open only slightly, the first image to catch his narrowed eye being his own reflection in the bathroom mirror that spanned the entire opposite wall, a sight that frightened as much as it aroused him. He didn't know his face could bear such an expression, open and devoid of his usual sour scowl, his slitted eyes and slightly open mouth reading blatantly of pleasure. The girl wrapped in his embrace was even better, the curve of her back and hips sensually showing around his hands, how her hair was slightly messed in between his fingers, and how her neck almost gleamed in the florescent lights as she curved upward into him.

He couldn't help himself with such a sight, deepening the kiss with a long sigh, unable to control his tongue in his mouth which hesitantly licked the lower seam of Sakura's parted lips. The girl let out a surprised gasp that only excited him further as he craned his neck down, pulling her up and crushing her.

This... was spectacular.

Naruto allowed himself a very bright smile when he received a brief text message from Sasuke about half an hour after his friend had left.

_Don't wait for me. I'm taking Sakura home._

And Hinata, seeing his grin grow wider and wider, asked softly, "Naruto? What is it?"

He looked next to him at the table to Hinata's glowing gray eyes and felt his heart thump slightly in his chest, his face reddening instantly. Whenever he had a chance to get a good look at the Hyuga girl, he couldn't help but feel a fluttering feeling. But he quickly blinked it away, turning his attention back to his phone.

"Nothing. Sasuke's taking Sakura home."

Ino, who had been arguing with Shikamaru with her arms folded over her chest, turned abruptly toward Naruto. "Ehhhhh? Sakura and _Sasuke? _H-how-"

Naruto shrugged, that smirk still hovering around his mouth. "I don't know, guess they ran into each other."

Ino let out another cry of disdain, yer mouth moving a mile a minute, both asking questions and making very loud statements about how "it's so _unfair!_" but Naruto paid no notice, closing his phone and looking back over to Hinata. She had her head lowered slightly a deep, thoughtful look on her face. Naruto wondered briefly what she was thinking that caused such an expression.

"Oh, whatever!" Ino finally said with a huff. "I'm tired of sweets! Hinata, let's go shopping! I want to buy some new earrings!"

Hinata raised her head and said very quietly, "But Ino, I have a curfew... I can't go shopping..."

Ino let out a groan of despair. "Well, fine, I'll just have to take Shikamaru with me."

"And just who agreed to that?" the boy in question bit out.

Ino leaned over in her chair so she was very forcefully invading the boy's space. "Oh, come on, are you really going to say no, Nara?" She fluttered her long eyelashes and his face colored slightly.

"It's settled then!" Ino said with a clap of her hands.

"Oh... well..." Hirata rose from her seat. "I'll see you all tomorrow."

The shy girl bowed slightly, her long hair falling down her cheeks in a light wave that sent a chill down Naruto's spine. He jolted to his feet, surprising everyone with the abrupt sound of his metal chair skidding over the concrete floor. "I'll walk you," he offered hastily, speeding ahead of Hinata and out of the doors to hide his embarrassment.

Hinata jogged slightly to catch up with him, her mouth hanging a little bit open to draw in more air, but Naruto couldn't hear the sound of her breathing, it was so light. It reminded him of her almost eerily silent nature, as if she was frightened to remind those around her that she existed. Naruto was the exact opposite, eager to assert the validity in his existence, but he often found himself wondering why he struggled so desperately to be noticed. Hinata made him think it was okay to be ignored sometimes, as long as the ones you love the most keep loving you. It was a calming thought. It warmed Naruto's heart. Hinata had that effect on him. That's what he liked about her...

Liked about her? Liked Hinata?

Naruto allowed himself a smile. Yes, that sounded good... He liked Hinata. She was sweet, beautiful, calming, caring, and very driven when she put her mind to it. He admired her tenacity to stand up for herself when she had to but also admired her ability to let things slide. Yes, he confessed he liked Hinata very much...

"Naruto?"

Her light voice brought him out of his silent conversation with himself.

"Oh... sorry, Hinata... What?" He grimaced at his own thoughts which, although positively engaged toward the girl, had caused him to ignore her during their walk. Already they were boarding a train heading toward the northern sector of the city.

"Is... Is Sakura sick?"

Naruto stopped walking entirely. Around him a sea of people parted to walk around him and Hinata, none of them bumping into him, as if there were some sort of force field around him. Naruto's eyes read horror so completely that Hinata couldn't bear to look at him.

"I-I mean, it's because she sometimes seems tired, and she's been missing a lot of school lately. She never comes on school field trips and always seems to go strait home sometimes... You've-You've known her l-longer than I have so I... So I..."

"I can't say anything more than this," Naruto cut her off in a very soft voice. "I'm her best friend, and no matter what I'll never be too far away from her... That's it." He lowered his head and stared at his shoes. He stood in silence and tried not to let the horror that had suddenly overtaken him portray on his face. Being with Sasuke was one thing, but Naruto didn't want to cry in front of Hinata. He clenched his jaw and tried to suppress it. A tiny hand on his arm, Hinata's hand, brought him back to the present.

He looked down to the girl, at her soft gray eyes and how wide and full of emotion they were. He could hardly bear to look at them but with her hand sliding slowly over his, he couldn't help it. He lowered his head slightly, the fear and pain over Sakura easing as Hinata's fingers made soothing circular motions over his hands. She didn't break eye contact.

But he did. The train came, squealing and shaking down the tracks, and his eyes broke with hers in order to look at the arriving vehicle. He helped her onto the train but couldn't look at her strait in the eye again throughout the entire ride. He couldn't help it. His face was too red.

Sakura lowered her head and continued to walk despite the fact that she felt like collapsing to her knees. Sasuke walked beside her and said nothing, impassive once more. It had been ridiculous, that whole situation... that kiss...

He'd kissed her. Deeply. There had been no prior explanation nor anything of the kind following it. Sasuke had grabbed her, kissed her, released her, and now they were walking again. She was practically shuddering under the repercussions of such an event, the heat left by his hands still marking her body, like tattoos only she could see and feel. And his lips, so forceful, had crashed so violently with hers until she felt like her heart might explode...

Sakura felt heat rise into her face so violently that she had to cough into her hand to give herself an excuse to lower her head further. Unfortunately she realized that as she coughed, she was coughing into Sasuke's black jacket, which he had silently bestowed upon her as they left the bathroom, and she felt absolutely mortified from it. But chose to say nothing for the sake of saving face.

Her mind was in a swirl anyway. A happy swirl of course. He liked her. She realized that now. And of course, she liked him. She'd always liked him... If he liked her too, what was stopping them from being together?

Nothing of course...

"Hey," she said quietly, just to get his attention. He craned his neck downward so he could hear her. He was very close, easily violating the distance he normally placed between himself and others.

"Hmm?"

"How... How did you know it was a panic attack?"

She watched as his eyes widened a mere fraction in surprise before lowering back to normal. He didn't say anything for a moment or two, and Sakura wondered if maybe she had said something wrong...

"I used to have them."

"I'm sorry?"

"Panic attacks," he said. "When I was a kid, I used to have them all the time. When I slept they would come on the worst." He closed his mouth and his eyes simultaneously.

She didn't know quite what to say. It looked like from the pain in his face that it somehow was a tender subject. She didn't want to dwell on something that disturbed him that greatly. "I've... never had one before..." She lightened her tone. "Which is weird, right? You think that I'd have had at least one!"

He smirked, that same Sasuke smirk that put her at ease. "You do seem like the type who would panic."

She laughed and gave him a light punch in the arm. "Hey, you should have seen me when I was a kid. One of my old teachers came up and surprised me one day, and I fainted right on the spot. The school even called my parents..." She winced.

"Not surprising," he agreed, his smirk widening.

She waggled her eyebrows at him, letting a lop-sided grin stretch over her face "You don't have to be such a prick about it," she teased.

Sasuke stopped walking and so did Sakura, surprised. "Sasuke?"

"You know," he said quietly, a hand drifting up her face to move a stray strand of pink hair from her eyes, "you're really a lot like Naruto."

Sakura didn't know what her blush came from, her excitement at having Sasuke touch her or the fact that he said she was like Naruto, someone she truly looked up to as something of a hero. She suddenly had to fight off the urge to cry. "You... you say that so easily, but you have no idea what that means to me," she said in a whisper.

"Idiot," he murmured, lowering his head to give her a long, soft kiss on the lips. She closed her eyes and felt him: his lips, his heat, his hands over her face. She savored the taste of his mouth, clean and hot and unbelievable. He pulled away to whisper huskily, "If it weren't for Naruto, I'd be dead. He saved me. I think that if it weren't for you, though, I might live my whole life like a bastard."

She opened her eyes slowly, staring up at him. He didn't move to kiss her again, much to her displeasure, but he did move his hands to the bottom of his jacket, zipping it up to protect her against the chill of the night air. He then made to move onward, nearing the train station, but Sakura did not budge. When Sasuke noticed, he turned to look back at her, inquisitive.

She swallowed and met his eyes. "Your hand."

Very slowly, he raised his hand from his side and held it out to her. She took it into hers, lacing her fingers with his. "I've never done this before," she said. Then she smiled. "You're really warm."

She saw the surprise glimmer across his face for a moment before he softened slightly. "Right." And he squeezed her fingers.

"Which train?" Sasuke asked at length as they neared the station, and Sakura noticed how his voice had changed slightly, holding a warmth that made her heart flutter.

She blushed and hurriedly pushed him out of the way and slid her card through the slot, continuing on so quickly that Sasuke had to jog to catch up. "T-this way," she said sheepishly. "My house is pretty far actually. My parents thought it would be better if the house was away from the city... too busy and stressful... my heart..."

_My heart._

Sakura stopped walking. The world changed in an instant. She lifted her head to the clouds above. Oh, naturally. How could she forget? She was dying. It didn't matter if Sasuke liked her. He couldn't save her. He couldn't stop destiny, no matter how smart or strong or good-looking he was. Sakura was a realist. She could fully see where this would all go, and she wouldn't be selfish. She wouldn't let this continue. It didn't matter if a relationship with Sasuke lasted two weeks or twenty years: her heart wouldn't. For all she knew she was going to die in two weeks. And if she didn't, that was almost worse.

Sakura had seen her parents dissolve from healthy, happy people in the prime of their lives into walking skeletons. Sakura rarely saw her mother without tears in her eyes, and sometimes Sakura didn't dare even look at her father, knowing that she would see the exhaustion haunting his once bright eyes. If Sasuke was near her, he'd be susceptible to the same type of agony Sakura's parents had succumbed to. She wouldn't let it happen.

"Sakura," Sasuke said, his voice a deep timber. He pulled her gently inside the train that had arrived while Sakura was busy thinking. She did not stumble despite being pulled so unexpectedly. She held her head up for the first time since he'd kissed her and met his eyes while the doors closed behind them. She could tell he was surprised, but she was determined. Without saying anything, she stood on her tip toes and kissed him. It was nothing more than the gentle brush of her mouth against his, but the rip that creased her heart at the moment their lips touched made her shudder. Sasuke must have felt it too because in an instant he wrapped his arms around her shoulders and didn't let her retreat, deepening the kiss.

"Sa-" she tried with a gasp, attempting to push herself away, but he'd have none of it. He circled one arm around her waist while the other held her hands. They were not alone in the train car, and Sakura could feel a few eyes watching them, which increased her nervousness. But Sasuke seemed lost in his own world, not caring, not stopping, not letting her go. His intensity was powerful enough to sweep her away into a world where she could have him. She could have him if only for a few minutes.

She could feel the train slow and with it so did Sasuke's mouth, from a rushing hurricane into a slow rumbling in his chest that she could feel with her lips. With a final lick to the top of her lip, he finally allowed them to separate.

"Where's your house?" he whispered, his hot breath mingling teasingly with hers.

She smiled softly. "Follow me."

They walked in silence, a comfortable silence that didn't break until Sakura began to slow in front of a large, two-story building. The place was indeed a country home, shrouded under the arms of two large trees. The walls were a light cream and the windows were a charming green that almost matched the trees, and though it was hard to tell in the darkness, a tire swing and a running sprinkler could almost be made out in the distance.

She stopped in front of the white gate and moved a strand of her hand away from her face. "This is it," she said quietly.

He raised an eyebrow. "You're rich?"

She shrugged. "If I wasn't, I doubt my parents could pay the hospital bills." Instead of wincing, she smirked.

A gust of wind blew past them, another long strand of Sakura's unkempt hair sweeping away from behind her ear and into her face. Sasuke moved a hand up to smooth it away, but she stopped him, a hand over his. When she spoke it was barely over a whisper. "I know what I want. But this isn't simple. I can't, no matter what, get what I want. Even if it means I have to hurt you too." She raised her eyes. "I know you think you can handle this, that you can take care of me, but you can't. I had to watch my parents lose themselves taking care of me. I won't watch it again..."

She slowly took off his jacket and placed it in his empty palm.

He looked at the black cloth then back up at her, his expression guarded. "Sakura..."

"From now on," she said quietly, "stay away from me."

**Chapter 11 end.**

**Aw, sad face, right? This chapter was very hard for me, telling it from Sakura's perspective. Sasuke comes easier to me! **

**Speaking of which, how will the sullen Uchiha boy react to his _second_ rejection from Sakura? Review, subscribe etc! Maybe I'll give out a few hints.**


	12. Victory

**Apologies for taking so damn long to update... I will be finishing this story, so no worries. Just taking my sweet time with it... .**

**Chapter Twelve**

Sasuke arrived home later than normal, which was disturbing for Itachi. When he was home from business, Sasuke usually returned from school earlier and never went out on the weekends so the brothers could spend quality time together, but Sasuke had been out with Naruto for most of the week, and today Sasuke didn't return until after midnight. As the young man stepped through the door, Itachi saw he was downtrodden, his hair messy and full of dew, his eyes red and tired. He moved with a decided, depressed lethargy that Itachi found significantly vexing.

To the point where he said out-rightly, "Sasuke, what is it?"

Sasuke looked up as if he was shocked Itachi was in the house, and when he met Itachi's eyes, he was sure to look away.

Itachi, who had been sitting on the living room couch enjoying a cup of coffee, placed his mug at his side and stood. "Sasuke, come here."

The younger man shook his head slowly.

Itachi, for a moment, was plagued with indecision. He didn't know whether to force Sasuke to explain or to be patient and wait for his brother to speak on his own. Sasuke's demeanor was disconcerting. He possessed that lost, heart broken facial expression that Itachi had seen when Sasuke had found out Naruto was moving away. In order to remove such an expression from Sasuke's face, Itachi had changed Sasuke's school to Naruto's. He would do anything to help again.

"Is it Naruto?" he asked finally, unable to deal with Sasuke being so broken and quiet.

Sasuke shook his head and began to slowly remove his shoes from his feet, letting them drop to the floor rather than placing them in their proper station beside Itachi's dress shoes.

Itachi abruptly knew the reason for Sasuke's melancholy. "Is it the girl? Sasuke, did something happen to her?"

Sasuke paused as if thinking then shook his head, still not verbally responding. Though he did journey into the expansive kitchen, reaching into the fridge and grabbing a full, ripe tomato. Sasuke didn't even clean the thing before biting into it, munching on it like it was an apple.

Itachi hated the silence. "What happened?"

Sasuke paused in his eating, looking thoughtfully on a small note he had written to himself about not forgetting a school project. This note of course was old and held no real reason to maintain Sasuke's undivided attention but nevertheless, he stood and stared and said nothing for a full minute while Itachi could only watch the storm rage inside his brother's dark eyes. Itachi saw the sadness there, almost like an underlying bass in a symphony, while other emotions like rage, grief, incredulity, and rueful acceptance each had their turn to hum away inside his brain. Itachi knew that any other person looking at Sasuke would see nothing more than a silent boy. Itachi, however, could sense changes in Sasuke's thoughts and emotions with uncanny clarity and could feel the amount of torment that was raging inside his little brother. Speaking now would be useless, Itachi could see. So he waited patiently until the minutes dragged on and Sasuke finally resumed eating the tomato. He ate with the same fastidiousness and cleanliness that he did everything, but his hands, though very slightly, were shaking.

"She's stubborn."

Itachi's eyebrows rose at the sudden declaration, but he did not speak for fear that Sasuke wouldn't. So he waited again.

"She's stubborn, and stupid!" Sasuke continued through gritted teeth. "Just like that fucking Naruto! They're both complete _idiots!_" He slammed his hand down on an adjacent counter and faced Itachi. "She thinks that _I _can't handle it? That I'll change? That I'll _regret_ it! She's an _idiot! A mindless, fucking idiot!_" And he slammed his hand down on the counter with enough force to shake the decorative center piece. He took deep breaths, his eyes closed so tightly that Itachi was sure that Sasuke would see stars when he next opened them.

"Dammit, I was serious." Sasuke didn't open his eyes still. "I wanted it. She only let me have a taste... Because she's sick... That's the whole goddam reason..."

Itachi had heard enough. He didn't hesitate to close the distance between himself and his brother, wrapping his arms around his shoulders. This girl, obviously, had somehow meant a great deal to Sasuke, though why was only Itachi's guess. From what he could discern, Sasuke had apparently drawn close to the girl, but the girl hesitated to reciprocate because of her delicate condition. Itachi, though upset as well by Sasuke's emotional turmoil, instantly respected the girl's decision.

He knew well enough that Sasuke (like he had been) was immensely sought after in high school by both men and women for love and for competition, but Itachi had passed through that stage in his life without meeting anyone special enough to tempt him. Sasuke, however, had found not only one person he valued, Naruto, but now a second, this other strange girl. Itachi knew Sasuke's nature. He had lost his parents at a young age and had sought to break ties with anything and everyone that could hurt him. When Sasuke was a child, he had even tried to keep Itachi at a distance for fear of losing him and being struck with the pain of being left behind once more. Sasuke, when he made a friendship, was in it for life and was heavily dependent on the relationship, even if he didn't display it. The idea that Sasuke could make such a strong relationship with someone who was doomed to leave him was simply playing with fire. Itachi knew his brother couldn't help it, but that didn't mean that Itachi couldn't protect him from it.

"Sasuke," Itachi said in a low voice, holding Sasuke close, "maybe this girl is right. Maybe you shouldn't..."

Sasuke jerked away from Itachi's embrace like he'd been stabbed in the chest.

"Sasuke, please..."

"No way!" his younger brother shouted angrily, clenching his teeth.

"You have to realize that someone like you shouldn't be around someone like her. It could be dangerous to-"

"There is _nothing _dangerous about Sakura!"

"-bring yourself close to someone who is going to _leave you!"_

Sasuke's face dissolved into an expression of horror, a look that passed only when he moved a hand over his eyes. "She's wouldn't leave..."

Itachi took a breath. "Listen to me, brother. If she's distancing herself from you, it means that she has no desire to harm you. If there is indeed _something _wrong with her, then you cannot put yourself into harm's way in order to be with her. There will be others like her perhaps, others that can..."

"_When _exactly will there be others?" Sasuke spat.

Itachi was struck dumb by both Sasuke's ferocity and the truth of the statement. It was exceedingly difficult for Sasuke to make friends, and even harder for Sasuke to genuinely care for someone. When indeed would another girl of this caliber cross Sasuke's path again?

"Brother," Itachi said very slowly, "what sort of feelings do you have for this girl?"

Sasuke looked up at Itachi and bit his lower lip. "I thought we discussed this."

"The state you were in then verses the state you're in now suggests a much deeper feeling than the one we discussed."

"Isn't it the same?" Sasuke cried.

"No! It is not the same! When you befriended Naruto, it was a very gradual thing. You both fought, you hated one another, then came respect, then came friendship, and now I know very well you love Naruto as a brother."

Sasuke looked down and said nothing, so Itachi continued.

"This relationship with this girl is entirely different. It's fast. That much I can tell you. And it's unstable. I didn't even know such a girl existed until a few weeks ago."

Sasuke shook his head. "Neither did I..."

Itachi was growing impatient. "Then _what _is it, Sasuke? If this relationship has started this quickly, it can end just as quickly, correct? There is no wrong is protecting yourself from losing someone again..."

"Now you're sounding just like her! Like I can't handle it!"

"Can you?"

"Of course I can!"

Itachi rushed forward and grabbed Sasuke's arms with such speed that the younger Uchiha could not react. Itachi's face and voice were set as a mask of severity. "You don't know the pain I go through at seeing you in pain, Sasuke. Naruto feels it too, I know, and this girl as well. The fact that she wants you to keep at a distance from her means that she's seen what she has done to those around her."

"She hasn't done any-"

"Sasuke." Itachi's voice was colder than Sasuke remembered it ever being. "You don't yet know the pain of watching someone you love die. _I know it_."

Sasuke's eyes instantly watered, and Itachi could feel the tremors shake Sasuke's body as his younger brother remembered the night their parent were killed.

But Itachi did not stop. Sasuke had to realize what he was getting into. "You were not there when they died. I was. I saw it. There's something uncanny in it, watching the people you love most leave this world, leave you behind forever."

Sasuke's eyes were spilling tears, his head bowed. Abruptly he tried to jerk away with such ferocity that Itachi had to pull out all his strength to keep his brother close.

"Imagine that but slower, Sasuke," Itachi bit, raising his brother's face to meet his eyes. "Imagine what the girl's parents or siblings have to go through watching her. Imagine how hard it is to be her, watching her family suffer. You think she wants that to happen to you?"

"S-shut up!" Sasuke was unabashedly crying now. "Our- our parents have nothing-"

"No, brother, they have _everything _to do with this! You want me to let you risk your heart over some random girl? I saw how shattered you were when mother and father died. How long it took you to get over it. You were pure, Sasuke. You've always been pure..."

"Enough!" The younger Uchiha broke his brother's hold on his arms, but only succeeded in collapsing on the counter top, holding his hands over his face. "Pure, not pure, I don't fucking care! I've never wanted _anything like I've wanted this!_"

The gravity of the situation suddenly struck Itachi like a metal weight, and he allowed silence to swallow Sasuke's heavy breathing until they had both reached an acceptable level of composure. Emotions, Itachi reflected bitterly, were tricky things to comprehend. Sasuke had very little experience with the complexities of heart-felt longing and infatuation so naturally when he finally did begin to feel these abnormalities it would strike him harder than most. Itachi as well knew that his advice on any subject regarding such passion was near ineffective because of his natural tendency to remain solitary. Sasuke was an entirely different animal, and Itachi had an inkling that it just might be Naruto's doing. He had opened the door to Sasuke's heart just enough so that this other girl could somehow squirm her way in, and it frightened Itachi. Not that he wasn't in some strange way happy and proud of his little brother. It was just the fear that Sasuke might be hurt that overwhelmed his positive feelings and forced him to remain on the conservative side. He sighed and put two fingers on the bridge of his nose.

"I don't want to stop you, Sasuke. I just want you to be careful. The girl may be as nice as the spring sun, but you can't deny that she's ill and eventually she may…" He attempted to be gentle. "Pass away."

"I don't care," Sasuke said through gritted teeth.

Itachi allowed himself a wry smile and put an arm on his brother's shoulder. "I know. How very Uchiha of you."

At this Sasuke looked up and smiled as well.

-oOo-

Sakura bent down to fix her loose shoelace, making sure it was securely fastened and ready to go. She could afford no detail left unchecked on such an important day. The regional track meet had finally come on the fateful Friday, and despite her nerves, Sakura was remaining calm. Her heart-rate was steady and relatively healthy, her mind was focused and attentive, and her body felt spry and limber. She felt perfect for such an event.

More than likely because the track meet provided and excuse to not think of Sasuke.

She'd been doing nothing else since he'd kissed her on the previous Sunday. All week long she had avoided him, even more so than she had before and especially in places where they could be alone. The only time she had seen him was in her Japanese class, where she felt his eyes bore into the back of her head. At those times she would turn around ever so slightly and glance in his direction, only to find him looking out the window.

The whole week she tried not to think of him: She tried not to think of him when she ate breakfast in the morning, wondering what kind of food was his favorite. She tried not to think of him in school, which she spent most of trying to avoid him. And she tried not to think about him when she went to bed, dreaming of his black eyes alight with wicked fire.

Continuing the chain, she desperately tried not to think of him even now as she stretched her legs and arms, inhaling the fresh scent of a summer day. Fall would be here soon enough. Already during the week, Konoha High had experienced a few cold fronts that forced Sakura to resort to bringing sweat pants to wear under her uniform skirt. Her mind abruptly turned to Sasuke's visage in the winter Konoha uniform, which was a black blazer and blue tie, very cut and fitting over his muscled arms and legs...

She blinked and returned her thoughts to the present, focusing on the track meet.

"Sakura!" Ino called from across the field. The blonde-haired girl and the rest of the team were standing in the center, stretching in a giant circle as they always did. Sakura had unintentionally been left behind, her thoughts frustratingly occupied.

Sakura yelled she was coming, joining her team in the circle as the stands began to fill slowly yet surely with parents, teachers, students, and bystanders. While doing a few experimental jumps on her main event, the high jump, Sakura wondered if Sasuke was perhaps in the crowd...

Sasuke had arrived earlier than most, positioned intentionally on the side of the track field so his view would not be obstructed. He allowed an expressionless face to observe everything, the changing heat, the crisp green grass, the smell of hot dogs and other concession items in the distance. A light sheen of sweat began to form on his back, and he opted to remove his coat, clothed in a loose-fitting black shirt and jeans that did not especially suit the hot weather but certainly suited his mood, which had been foul all week.

He'd fought Naruto at least four times in sheer frustration, all of which he induced through unfair methods (calling Naruto cruel things like an orphan and a nobody, which he always apologized for later with a heavy heart). It was all Sakura's doing, of course. She remained to be stubborn and fool hardy, avoiding him, though he took measures to find her. Despite all his searching, he could never find a time to get Sakura with him alone without drawing attention.

He didn't quite know what he would do, which was a feeling he was getting used to when things concerned Sakura. As he had before, he trusted his instincts when the time came to be as they had been. He'd never cared about saying the right words to people before. He'd lived his life believing that words were essentially a way to pass information from one person to another and nothing more. He couldn't account for the words he wanted to say to Sakura at all.

The stadium began to fill, and it wasn't long before Naruto found him. The cheerful blonde was sporting a couple of bandages on his face and neck, but he seemed to pay them no mind as he clapped Sasuke on the back. "Hey buddy."

He grunted and focused his attention on the field where the track team had just arrived. He spotted Sakura quickly in her red shorts and white Konoha High T-shirt, her long hair in a high pony tail and flicking around her lower back. She looked radiant, a slight redness in her cheeks the only sign she could feel the blistering heat of the day.

The seats were soon jam-packed as the scent of corn dogs and fried candy bars filled the hot air. It wasn't long before the events began, starting with the junior varsity teams and events that Sasuke could care less about. He was there for one reason: he knew for certain that Sakura would be at this meet, and when it was over, they would talk. But the sun was relentless. Sasuke felt a little nauseated with the heat beating down so hard on his dark clothing, and he sipped constantly on a large water bottle he'd brought from home. Beside him sat Naruto, on the edge of his seat and practically vibrating with excitement, a light sheen of sweat coating his forearms. His eyes were alight with a strange blue that Sasuke recognized only possessed Naruto's gaze when Sakura was somehow involved. After all the torment Naruto had been in over the past couple of weeks, Sasuke was happy to see his friend sink back to his normal happy self. Beside Naruto sat little Hinata, a girl who Sasuke would barely recognize if it wasn't for Naruto leaning so close to her. He could almost smell the happiness radiating from the both of them, and it threatened to make him sick. Though he noted with a pang that it wasn't because the idea of Naruto having a lover annoyed him. It was the fact that he couldn't straighten his own love out that threatened to make him puke all over the person in front of him.

Without warning, Hinata slowly got to her feet, rummaging about in her purse for something. Naruto immediately responded. "What is it?"

The girl blushed, and Sasuke recognized that it wasn't an unpleasant expression for such a small girl to have. "I... well, I was thirsty..."

"Of course!" Naruto beamed, getting to his feet. "I'll get you a water, okay? No need for you to get up!" The boy, a nervous bustle of energy, began rummaging over the people beside him and was about to fall on Sasuke completely before the dark-haired boy lost his temper. He growled and shoved Naruto back into his seat. The other boy tried to get back up with a laugh, but Sasuke shoved him again. "Sit." When Naruto tried to protest, he said, "You shut up, dammit. I'll get you both water, got it? Stay with her and save my seat... ass..."

He shook his head as he got to his feet, navigating through a myriad of teenagers and their parents in an attempt to get to the concession stand. Finally he arrived at the relatively long line of spectators and waited patiently for his turn to order. His eyes wandered back down to the field, where he searched in vain for the pink bob of head amongst the green field, but his eyes in the bright light could hardly distinguish bodies much less hair. He resigned himself and let his eyes wander back over the stands. He spotted Naruto easily, his blonde hair and bright orange shirt sticking out amongst the dark-haired populous. He and that girl Hinata looked awfully close, leaning against one another despite the heat. In the background, Sasuke heard the shot of a gun and knew that another race was under way. Sakura was not participating in this event, so it held little interest to him. Naruto's actions with the girl were much more stimulating. If Sasuke remembered correctly, Hinata had said something about one of her friends, Kiba, being in this race. He was surprised when he saw the girl cheer out rather loudly for her friend, and of course Naruto joined in. The race was going to be close, the runners beating down the path closely. The crowd began to roar and Sasuke saw Naruto grab Hinata's hand as if in anticipation, but Sasuke suspected that Naruto may have ulterior motives.

The runners finally arrived at the finish line, a mane of spiked brown hair launching himself in first at the last possible moment. Hinata and Naruto jumped for joy, their hands still joined, even when the excitement died down. Sasuke was near the front of the line when the girl finally looked down to their clasped fingers. She raised her head, and her and Naruto stilled, though the crowd around them was a teeming mass of excitement. Sasuke saw them both lean closer, their eyes closing. With dread fascination, he saw their lips meet, light and gentle. Heat rose to Sasuke's face and down his neck as he remembered the feel of Sakura's lips and body against his. The fact that she'd attempted to keep her distance from him no longer seemed to matter any more, and all at once Sasuke knew exactly what he'd say to Sakura when they met up again.

Naruto's kiss with Hinata ended with both of them blushing furiously, but Naruto pulled her into a fierce hug before she could retreat. A little heart-sick, Sasuke paid for his waters and turned away. He almost ran into a smaller woman, who all at once he recognized.

Her head of pink hair was shockingly familiar, the light curls framing the pale skin and hollow eyes of a ghost-like creature. She looked up at Sasuke with a tiny hint of recognition. "You," she whispered. "You were there the other night."

Her identity dawned all at once on Sasuke. "Mrs. Haruno."

She nodded. "I'm sorry I don't remember your name, young man. At the time, I was rather..." her voice trailed off, and her gaze drifted back to the track field. "You mustn't tell her I'm here. I just wanted to see her in her element. You have no idea how much we fought when she told us she wanted to join the track team. Stubborn girl almost left home in revolt. But her father and I realized that we couldn't possibly keep her home forever. She wants a life too, I know. It's just so hard..." She wiped her eyes with a light sniffle. "Oh, but look at me going on and on. I'm sure you're not even interested in..."

She stopped speaking when she turned back to him and saw just how intently he was listening. His expression must have been strange because the woman before him abruptly shifted. She seemed to be able to read right through him as if he were completely transparent. She straightened and eyed him critically. "She's pretty isn't she?"

He responded without thinking. "Yes." He felt his face redden.

She sighed. "I see." A transformation seemed to overtake the once feeble woman before him. All at once she was commanding and somewhat terrifying. "I know that you think you care about my daughter, boy, but I suggest you give up quickly. I know that Sakura doesn't want to see anyone else hurt by her condition. Her father and I love her more than life itself, and it grieves her to this day. If you don't want to hurt her, you'd better stay away, understand? She doesn't have much time left, and I won't stand to see her upset!"

Again, Sasuke reacted without thinking. "You say all of this, thinking that there's no hope for Sakura. That it's inevitable that she's going to die."

"It is inevitable!" Mrs. Haruno hissed through clenched teeth. "Do you think that we've spared any cost? We've taken her to every doctor we could find! And it's all the same! She won't survive!" She gathered up her height to its fullest extent, which was still shorter than Sasuke though he felt her threatening air. "Stay away from my daughter!"

She stalked back through the stands and soon disappeared into the crowd.

"_And now for the final event of the day_: _The High Jump!_" an announcer blared over the speakers. Sasuke took it as his cue to get to his seat.

Sakura could feel her nerves rising as she prepared her body for the High Jump. Konoha High had managed to land themselves in second place, with the Sound High School the only opponent in the way of total victory. Unfortunately that meant that the high jump would be the final deciding factor, and since Sakura was the best on the team at the high jump, she could feel all eyes lock onto her.

Sakura swallowed and felt her heart beat quicken. The pressure was almost suffocating. A hand from behind slapped Sakura on the shoulder, startling her out of a near panic attack.

"Hey, you look nervous!" It was Ino, smiling and rubbing Sakura's shoulder comfortingly.

"Well shouldn't I be?" Sakura asked. "I can't believe it's all on me now. I don't think I can do this."

"Aw, don't worry about it. I know you can do it. And even if not, we had a great year this year, right?"

Sakura turned to look at her friend, who smiled sweetly down at her. "Sometimes I think we all think way too much about the end result. We had fun on the track team, right? So I think that's all that really matters. We got a hundred times better than last year too! So when it comes right down to it, the end result doesn't matter. I guess that's what life's all about, right? The journey. Having as much fun as possible and making memories that will last a lifetime is what high school is all about! Even life is about having a good time too if you think about it." She laughed to herself. "So don't worry about winning or losing today, Bill-Board Brow. Just have fun!"

Sakura looked up at her friend as if she had four heads and spiked green hair. "Who are you and what have you done to Ino?"

The girl in question burst into laughter. "I'm sorry, that must have sounded really weird! But I'm so, ridiculously happy right now!" She leaned in to whisper. "I got a new boyfriend, and he's a _really _good kisser." She turned around toward the stands. Sakura followed her eye-line and made out Shikamaru's impatient face waiting in the stands. He looked more annoyed than anything, but when his eyes met Ino's, he softened somewhat.

Ino turned back to face Sakura, squealing. "I don't really care what happens at the meet anymore! I got a hot date tonight! Ahh, this is the life."

The smaller girl looked back slowly to the stands, her mind wandering. The end result, Ino had said, really didn't matter. Naruto's bright blonde hair stuck out amongst the rest of the people. Next to him sat Hinata, and she saw how close they looked, sitting together. Sakura smiled and could feel that Naruto would have something to tell her the next time they talked. The smile made her eyes shift slightly until she spotted a dark figure, standing just beside Naruto. Her heart gave a small flutter, while the bugle sounded, alerting the people in the stands that the next event was starting. Sakura found Sasuke's gaze while the rest of the crowd watched the opposing Sound track team send out their finest high-jumper. Sakura paid no attention to all the hype and found herself lost in looking at the shadowy figure. He seemed to meet her attention with as much intensity as the blazing sun above. Sakura would have cowed under it if it hadn't excited her so much.

"Wow, that was amazing," Ino said under her breath. "At the height she just jumped, Sakura, you're going to have to break the regional record to win."

"Sure," Sakura said without looking away. "Actually, put it two centimeters taller than the record. I'm feeling lighter than air today."

Ino must have looked at her friend like she was insane, but Sakura didn't care much. She watched as Sasuke left his seat, making his way down the stands and coming closer, closer.

"It's set," Ino said. "Are you ready?"

Sakura did finally have to break her gaze from Sasuke's, looking back toward the high jump. In the end, if she failed at this, it didn't matter. All that mattered was that she was having fun now. She had improved herself over the year, had proven her parents wrong about her once precarious health situation. Sakura had made friends, had gotten top grades in school. No matter what happened now, she was grateful that she had taken the chance despite her failing heart and had gone to high school. Wouldn't the same thing happen if she said yes to Sasuke? Didn't she always regret the fact that she had wasted her life, hiding from her condition? And wouldn't refusing Sasuke be hiding once more?

The high jump would be her test, she decided then and there. Sakura's heart was strong enough for school, it was strong enough to make her body run, and if it was strong enough to carry her legs over that bar, then it was strong enough to love.

She raised a hand, pointed at the high jump in silent challenge, not to the height but to herself. If she could sail over that bar, she could sail over the fear of her own death and into the arms of Uchiha Sasuke.

The people around her, the stands, the announcer, even the dark-eyed boy standing on the sidelines, all watched in complete silence as the smallest girl on the Konoha track team stared down a height that rivaled a professional's.

Sakura bolted.

Her arms and legs pumped, her heart heaved in her chest but out of excitement not pain, her body coiled and curved at the last moment. She launched herself into the air, curving her back, arching her neck. And then came the hard part, the legs. They glided like hot honey through butter over the bar, into the air. Weightlessness consumed Sakura in a moment as she focused on the contrast of her pale fingers against the vibrant blue of the sky. With a soft thunk, Sakura landed on the blue mat, watching as above her the bar remained untouched.

She let out a breath as the roar of the crowd echoed in her ears like a distant cry. "Wow..."

In a moment, she was pulled by the legs off the mat and into the arms of her teammates, who roared in victory. She was whisked onto their shoulders as if she weighed nothing. A shining gold trophy was shoved into her hands, and it was then that she finally realized that she had won. Roaring along with the rest of her team, they paraded about the field in a dance and song of victory, while the other teams politely applauded. Konoha High had never before made first place in a sporting event, as it was a relatively new school, and everyone praised Sakura's glorious name. Triumphantly, Sakura raised her arms in the air and led her team to the stage which was in the very center of the field. A much larger trophy was presented to the track team coach to have proudly displayed in Konoha High's hallways, and before Sakura knew it, the ceremonies were over. Everyone began talking about after parties and places to go officially celebrate, but Sakura's eyes were scanning the crowds, looking for him.

She didn't see Sasuke as the girls made their way to the locker rooms to shower, nor when she emerged refreshed and clean. The sun began to set, and the clean up crew was nearly finished with restoring the field to its spotless self. Sakura took a long breath as the spotlights over the field began to turn on.

"Sakura!" Ino called from the direction of the exit. "Are you coming or what? We're going to a barbecue joint to celebrate!"

"In a minute!" Sakura returned, walking slowly toward the field. "I think I left my jacket by the benches."

The grass smelt good in the twilight, warm dew settling over the green field. Another few hours and the school would be enveloped in cool darkness with a chilly, biting wind to accompany it, but for now Sakura enjoyed the warmth of the setting sun.

The sound of the grass crunching under light feet alerted her to his presence before anything else. Then for some reason a stray gust of wind blew his scent into her nostrils, and she felt a shiver of delight pass over her skin like a current of energy. She waited until the footsteps stopped just a few centimeters behind her, until she could feel his breath on the back of her neck.

"Hey." His voice was, of course, nonchalant and uncaring, but she knew better than to take him at face value, especially with how she'd seen him recently. It did disturb her, however, that he had come to see her anyway, despite what she had told him. It was the kind of behavior that border-lined masochistic with the way he knowingly put his own heart in the assured path of being shattered. Sakura, despite her early conviction, now felt that maybe she should stay with the choice she'd made the previous week and reject him for his own sake.

"I've ignored your request to not see you."

"Yes, I can see that," she shot back with bitterness. "Your stubbornness doesn't help anything, either. Nothing has changed."

"Exactly."

She spun on him, ready to unleash a fistful of anger with a mouthful of words, but his proximity stopped her. He unabashedly stood way past the invisible line of personal space and leaned down, touching her lips with his. Like a ninja, before she even realized what happened, he stepped back. He had succeeded in silencing her.

"There," he said softly. "That's all that matters. I've received warning after warning about this. From you, from my brother, from your mother…"

"You met my mom?"

"The point is that whatever either of you say, I don't care. I'm here now, and you're here now. That's enough." He stole another kiss, just off the corner of her mouth, like a tease. She couldn't help it. Wrapping her fingers around the back of his neck, she leaned in and gave a long, soft kiss. There was no rushing or fervency as it had been before, no wetness or sloppiness. Sakura had never experienced such a clean, comfortable kiss. It was almost like coming home, and she knew that even if she wanted to, she couldn't turn him away now. He'd won this battle.

Sasuke must have known this too because he gripped her tighter in the next second and pressed flush against her, savoring his victory like a sweet and drinking every bit of his prize from her lips. It wasn't long before he was practically lifting her in the air, his prize trophy for fighting so hard. She in turn smothered his mouth with hers and clung to him tightly. She had no knowledge of how love or relationships were supposed to work. She had no reference to go off of, no previous experience with any form of romantic kiss, but her body moved of its own accord and hung on for dear life. More than anything, she wanted to feel his body next to hers, a sensation of closeness she had always wanted but never believed she would be able to have.

Tenderly, she felt him guide her mouth open, slipping a teasing tongue inside and then retracting it quickly, so she made a small squeak of surprise. She hadn't expected it, but now that she'd tasted him further, she wouldn't be satisfied with a mere taste. Sakura clenched her hands behind his neck and forced him closer, ready to intensify their kiss to a whole new level.

"Oh, my God, Sasuke and Sakura!"

They broke apart with a loud smacking noise, startled from their private moment by the four girls, including Hinata and Ino, who had wanted to take Sakura out to dinner before. The blonde girl quickly moved to the front of the pack, keeping a smart distance from the pair with a mask of incredulity on her face, while Hinata remained with the other two girls, who were unabashedly crying in the back ground. "No way!" she yelled. "Sasuke and Sakura are together!"

"Oh, no," Sakura whispered under her breath. "Now everyone's going to know."

**Chapter 12 end. **

**Lord, I apologize for the long delay. Life got busy with the approach of fall, but I will be completing this story. Thank you for the reviews. They're always lovely.**


	13. Kisses

**Chapter 13**

Midterms were the following week.

Sasuke remained neck deep in paper after paper that one sadistic bastard, Ibiki Morino, kept assigning for his own sick enjoyment. The young man, however, was breezing through each task with a level of intelligence and refinement that rivaled most college professors. He sat in the library with black wire-rimmed glasses perched on the edge of his nose – reading glasses to keep his eyes in good condition no matter how dim the light – and with two books stretched out before him, one an anthology of the poems of Basho and the other a rather worn notebook. He'd been sitting in the same attitude for more than a few hours, but he was used to that. Because he was ahead on credits, he had a few free periods and his lunch time to do homework. The school library was a comfortable, quiet place and smelt of books. In Sasuke's secluded corner, hidden cleverly behind two oddly placed bookshelves, barely anyone knew where he was and if they did, they knew better than to bother him. He wasn't in a foul humor, he realized silently as he scratched a few more notes about Basho's stylistic approaches. He merely worked with a drive and determination that he hadn't felt for schoolwork in a long while. He felt, in a word, content.

Sasuke realized all at once that his jaw was hurting.

He leaned back and began massaging it, trying to ascertain where the sudden ache had come from. He hadn't fought with Naruto in over a fortnight, and he hadn't been sleeping oddly either.

A light chuckle from behind him. "Finally noticing that you've been sitting there for half an hour, with an idiotic grin on your face?"

He flicked his eyes upward and found Naruto crossing his path to sit in the chair in front of him. His mouth turned downward in its customary scowl, but the ache intensified when it did, as if it wasn't used to being in such a position any longer. "I'm surprised you can even say the word 'idiotic,'" Sasuke replied cooly. "That's a lot of syllables for you. Not to mention you've developed the patience to stare at someone for half an hour? Amazing..."

Naruto mock-snickered and wrinkled his nose. "Aw, little Sasuke _in looo_-"

"Shut the fuck up."

Naruto burst into fit of laughter. "Oh, come on, man! You can't be caught making out with your girlfriend in public and not expect a little bit of haggling."

"Well so far, I haven't had any of it, except from you, asshole." Sasuke returned back to his books and took care not to look back up at Naruto. He was afraid that even in the sparse lighting of his little corner Naruto would see his blush. He didn't need a reminder of the sudden shock of several other girls squealing at the sight of him and Sakura lip-locking on the track field. Sasuke was a naturally private sort of person, so such a display certainly put him off his kilter. It'd been a long time since then, and he'd barely had any time with his new girlfriend. They were both so bogged down with school that it had become impossible to meet after school hours. Inside school was even more impossible, not with every man, woman, and teen watching them like hawks. Sasuke's popularity had somehow skyrocketed in less than a day, and women were practically crawling all over him. He had no idea how Sakura was fairing, which nerved him slightly. He knew full well that perhaps she was undergoing hardships because of him, but he'd heard nothing about it.

"So you've been spending all your lunches in here," Naruto said with a slight exhale of breath. He was leaning precariously back in the chair, his neck and arms stretched to the bookshelves behind him.

"Hn."

"All those girls still freaking out over you. Honestly, I don't get what's the big deal. You're not that special."

Sasuke didn't count anything Naruto said as significant and therefore had no reason to respond.

"Even Sakura has to have some part of her brain that's not working right to be with a cold ass like you."

An eyebrow raise in response, nothing more.

"You know, I have lunch with her most the time, so I get to see her in action. Did you know that since you two became... public..." He snickered again. "her popularity has gone way up. If you bothered to eat lunch with us again, you could see all the guys swarming all around her. Man, sometimes I get a little nervous for her 'cause she's so small, but she doesn't seem to mind it. Yeah, they're freaking everywhere, though. Like I can barely get a seat next to her sometimes- Hey!"

Sasuke had gotten from his chair with a speedy fluidity to match a ninja. Gathering his belongings into his bag, he was halfway down the hall before Naruto could catch up. Sasuke had lately been eating in the library to avoid the crowds of the lunch room, but now obviously that had changed.

Damn Naruto.

Crossing the school and walking briskly down the stairs to the commons took no more than a few minutes. Sasuke felt every eye and heard every whisper, punctuated once in a while by a high-pitched squeal. He pushed open the doors to the cafeteria with Naruto finally by his side.

He saw her in an instant.

Sakura was sitting demurely, eating in silence with no less than half a dozen men sitting around her. Female friends were somehow pushed to the side and sitting a few seats down, attempting to shove away the offending guys, who really meant no harm but were nonetheless rats in Sasuke's eyes. They talked and chatted away with Sakura mercilessly. She would smile and nod but otherwise she'd attempt to talk with her blonde friend or Hinata from across the table. It was obvious that their communications were breaking down because Sakura eventually rolled her head back and sighed in defeat.

The strange thing was that, despite his normally sharp senses regarding himself, Sasuke had no idea that the rest of the cafeteria had zeroed in on him as if his face was made of lead and their eyes were made of magnets. He merely closed the distance between himself and Sakura's table within a few seconds and soon stood very tall behind the group of guys. For a moment, only one noticed him, and then another until the whole table was silent, looking at him. Sakura also had her back to Sasuke and had no idea he was even there.

The Uchiha stared down one of the guys, a beefy Senior with a reputation for having a temper, and raised an eyebrow. The Senior merely grinned, nodded to his friends, and stood. Sasuke wasn't a junior that could be messed with. Here was when Sakura turned to see what they were doing and saw him. Her mouth instantly split into a blinding smile that had Sasuke a little struck, his heart suddenly beating very fast. He didn't even notice the guys leaving.

"Sit," Sakura said, hardly able to keep that smile off her face. She patted the chair next to her, and he sat beside her without hesitation. She leaned slightly toward him, not touching but definitely encroaching upon what was personal space for him. He didn't mind it, which was a whole new level of odd for him. Without him noticing, Hinata, Ino, and Naruto sat around them, a few other of the original gang joining in and chatting away amiably. They all seemed to realize that leaving Sasuke and Sakura in their own world was for the best.

"I missed you," Sakura whispered in his ear. Goosebumps spread up the left side of his cheek and down his neck. Also new.

He couldn't say anything for a moment, his face meant to be a mask of passive silence, but Sakura took no fault with it. "Oh, and I thought I should tell you. Mr. Morino's exam is a complete nightmare, so try to be ready for it. I think I barely passed."

Sasuke looked skeptical. "Well, if it was a challenge for you, then there really is no hope for the rest of us."

Sakura snickered in a way that was uncannily like Naruto. "You'd better believe it. I called Naruto right after class, and he's been studying ever since. _Or he should be_!" she yelled, smacking the table in front of Naruto's eyes so the blonde boy was jilted out of Hinata-world and into the present.

"Shiiiiiit!" he screamed at the top of his voice. "Dammit, the library!" He bolted from his chair, falling on the smooth floors several times before skidding away. Half the cafeteria laughed at his antics as he slid here and there and finally was lost from sight.

"That idiot," Sasuke said with the shake of his head. "So that's why he was in the library… By the way, he told me about your little _problem_."

Sakura turned away slightly, her shoulders hunched and her face beat red in a blush. "They were just teasing."

"At first!" Ino yelled with finality, slamming her hand on the table. "But Sakura thought that she'd read them the entire first chapter of _Moby Dick _in a Scottish accent to drive them off. Put me to sleep, sure, but the guys wouldn't stop laughing! They loved it! Buch of weirdos! But ever since Monday they've sat here every day! Poor Hinata's had to resort sitting next to that idiot Naruto so she wouldn't be bull-dozed by those monsters! And I swear to God, if I hear another one of them hit on Sakura _again_, I might just lose it!"

Sasuke flicked his eyes back to the rosette, who suddenly seemed to find intense interest in the texture of her mashed potatoes. Her mouth was turned down and her cheeks suddenly began to shift color, from white to cherry red.

"S-Sakura didn't like it though," Hinata said in her tiny voice, her head lifting sightly so her eyes could meet Sasuke's, though she did lower her head in the next second. "She tried getting them to leave. She wouldn't-"

"Yes, yes," Ino interjected with a wave of her hand. "Sakura's as loyal as a dog, but I _swear _if she wasn't, she would have had her pick of the lot!"

Ino resumed talking, but the young Uchiha lost interest in her description of the upper-class boys. Sakura was too amusing of a picture, biting her lower lip and breathing rapidly through flared nostrils. Sasuke had never felt the urge to hug another person so strongly in his entire life. It was as if the desire was claiming him like a warlock claims a buxom, fainting maiden, and an equally powerless Sasuke could not struggle against it. Sakura could not have been more adorable.

"So there's an installation exhibit in Konoha Art museum!" Ino said brightly, breaking into Sasuke's thoughts with her rather loud voice. He was a little grateful for the reprieve he had to admit.

"Installation?" Sakura asked with a raised eyebrow. "Like those chalk drawings that look like they're in 3D?"

"Kind of, but they're having them in the museum. I hear that the guy who makes them is only our age, so all the teachers are giving out extra credit to go see it and write a reaction to it. Pretty cool huh?"

Sakura smiled softly. "Yeah, it is, but I don't think I can go…"

"Aww, Sakura, _why not?_" Ino crossed her arms in a pout. "You said that since your parents were out of town that you'd be able to hang out more! It's been weeks, and the only thing you've done with us outside of school is go to the sweets cafe! I mean, come on! Remember last year when you couldn't go on the school trip because it was your grandma's birthday?"

Sakura blinked, her eyes widening a mere fraction. "Oh, yeah, I remember."

Sasuke knew better though. He knew why Sakura always said no to their invitations.

"Or the time when we wanted to head to Suna for a weekend!" Ino continued with exasperation.

Sakura could have been having an attack.

"What about when the track team went out to pull an all-nighter?"

She could have been in the hospital.

"Or our beach day?"

Running tests.

"Shopping with the girls!"

Feeling too weak to get up.

"The group date!"

Near death.

"_I'll go!_"

Sakura's voice snapped Sasuke from his trance and he lifted his head slightly to look at his girlfriend. Her head for once was not tilted down, nor were her eyes lowered. She eyed her friends with a light of bitter determination that held an edge even Sasuke could feel. Ino must have recognized it too because she visibly backed off from her friend. There was a strange silence on the table before finally the blonde girl clapped her hands together. "Great! And Sasuke, you'll come too of course, right?"

Casting another glance at Sakura, who seemed to be looking apprehensively at him, he nodded.

Ino burst into a cry of joy and proceeded to outline the plans of that upcoming Saturday, which would be spent at the Konoha Museum of Fine Arts. Thankfully the bell rang before too much longer, and the students rose from their seats, dispensing their trash into the waste bins and heading back to class. Sasuke was nearing one of the doors when he felt a small tug on his sleeve. He stopped immediately and turned around to find Sakura, looking up at him with a firmly set mouth as the kids around them slowly left the room. They were almost alone when she opened her mouth.

"You don't have to come if you don't want to. Naruto says you don't really like going out on the weekends. And he said your brother was in town too…"

"I said I would go," Sasuke cut her off. "I'll go."

"Right, I heard you," the girl continued with exasperation, "but if you don't _want _to, you shouldn't have to."

"I want to."

"Are you sure?"

He quirked an annoyed eyebrow at her. "Do you think I would deliberately lie to you to appease Yamanaka?"

"No, but I don't think you would have said yes if-"

"If I didn't want to see _you_."

Sasuke suddenly felt a little warm after making such a declaration. Honestly, where did these words come from?

Sakura seemed to catch it too, her blush intensifying tenfold. "Oh, alright then…" She turned from him, obviously embarrassed. He shut his eyes tight in his own form of mortification, but a sudden pressure on his lips sent them flying back open. Sakura's arms soon slid up his shoulders as she pulled him in for a light, lovely kiss, so soft he could hardly feel it yet so hot he thought he would burst into flames. In an instant, he tugged her closer to him by the bottom of her blouse, finding that having her this close felt so good after it being so long since kissing her. Wasn't dating supposed to be full of this? Kissing, touching… Sasuke felt nearly cheated that they hadn't done more of this and sought to compensate for the time with intensity. Dipping his head, he deepened the exchange and found himself sighing with contentment in Sakura's sweet taste. She was like the best kind of strawberry, laced in honey, dipped in something divine. And Sasuke could have sworn that he hated sweets with a passion.

He flicked his tongue just at the seam of her lips, longing for a better taste, and found what he got infinitely hotter than what he'd been expecting. The moment he sampled the heat behind her lips, he sought to draw her out, coaxing and teasing mercilessly until she in turn responded by pressing her body against his and tugging the back of his neck with her fingers. It was a long, slow kiss that was held a rising and shifting heat similar to an ocean's current. He would move slightly, she would respond in turn, his tongue would dance, hers would flicker, he would catch a small breath, and she would steal it away in an instant. Sasuke's world began to spin until the only thing he could register was the blinding feeling rising up from the pit of his stomach, which was so strong he felt it would overpower him and cause him to shake.

"Sasuke," she whispered against his mouth. His own name had never sounded more melodious, panted from Sakura's quivering lips and punctuated with kisses. "Wait…"

His mind registered what she had said, but his body did not.

Against his will, she tried pushing him away, her face flushed and heated just as much as his. "We-we have to get to class," she gasped in between little, wet kisses.

"This is my free period," Sasuke mouthed against her. It was a lie of course, but nothing could tear him away from her now. He wanted nothing more than to lift her up on one of the tables and devour her mouth until that sweet taste was completely gone.

But Sakura was stubborn and had a will that dwarfed his. "But it's not mine! I have to go!"

"Nonsense," he breathed. He rubbed his hands through the back of her long hair. The pink locks fell through his fingers like thin silk until he reached her neck, gently holding it in place. Now she couldn't back away from his mouth.

"Sasuke," she said again. Her voice was a warning, but her tongue flicked over his mouth in invitation. Such a contradictory woman…

He had no qualms, though. Class meant nothing to him at the moment. Nothing meant nothing to him. There was only her body, her voice, and her lips...

And then there was a crash.

Sakura shoved him away with surprising force until Sasuke was nearly knocked flat on his back. Luckily he had the presence of mind along with superior reflexes to keep him from harm's way. He looked cautiously to where the noise had come from and saw it was the lunch ladies, wearing their hair nets and white aprons, who had come out to clean up from lunch. They must have dropped a pan or something, causing the alarming noise that had broken their embrace.

"Dammit," he muttered. The moment was lost.

"I have to go!" Sakura abruptly cried, looking down to her watch with wide eyes. "I'm late for class! We have a test too, dangit!"

Sasuke found that he couldn't get a word in edgewise. The girl was instantly set on getting to class, gathering her bag and notebooks in a bustling hurry before fleeing out the door. The girl was a train of energy, and though Sasuke felt a slight twinge of jealousy at how she easily left him without another word, he did recognize the flaming desire welling up inside him. Sakura had somehow ignited it, and now that he had it, Sasuke felt it might never go away.

He spent a full five minutes catching his breath. Saturday, he reminded himself, would come soon. After the museum, they would be able to spend time together. He would have to be patient until then.

**Chapter 13 end. **

**Here we go again, another update. Sorry this one is rather short, but I felt this was a good time to end the chapter. I'll update again soon, I promise. **


	14. Painter

**AU: **

**After so long, an update on this story! I realized that my writing style has changed (improved hopefully) from my last chapter, and I do apologize for that, as well as for the GROTESQUE amount of time it has taken for me to put this up. I would really love to finish Dauntless Core, so I'm trying again! **

**Thanks so much**

**Chapter 14**

**Painter**

Scuffed converse shoes— black and white checkered laces flopped lazily up and down to a steady tempo. His music must have been blaring so loud that he couldn't hear anything, this fact made obvious by the lack of reaction to the booming of a car horn. The black jacket had its hood up over the boy's face, partially hiding it from the sun. But it did not hide his ever-constant smile, plastered so obviously on his face that a few people who passed him actually stopped and turned around to stare. The boy was fashionable, dark-haired and handsome, and smiling like a fool, his almond eyes flipped into thin lines as if they were constantly closed.

He was the kind of boy that the jocks beat up on in high school, but somehow he'd become a better person for it— the kind of kid who had been through a girl phase, a smoking phase, a party phase, and now was matured into himself— the kind of kid who smiled and bobbed his head to his music, shutting out the rest of the world with as much ease as it took to walk.

The streets under his feet passed by like liquid, the miles diminishing into nothing but steps to match his rhythm. This strange, smiling boy finally arrived at the heart of the city. He made his way up the side stairwell of the Konoha Museum of Art, and his smile only got wider by the minute.

He passed a few of the security guards with ease, holding out his large messenger bag wide open so they could get a good view of the insides and then allow him to pass. After that were the gallery directors, the receptionists, the press, and then the gallery itself. His music stayed in his ears. His smile remained on his face. He was too happy to be there.

Hours passed. He was asked many questions and responded to them all with perfect fluency, despite the fact that the black buds remained fixated inside his lobes. The designs were called "flawless, innovative, daring, inspirational." He paid no mind to the rave reviews. His art wasn't for them anyway.

It was for the one song humming in his ear. He'd been listening to the same song for over six months, day in, day out. It was the first thing he heard when he woke, the last thing he heard when he went to sleep. The rhythm of his life was structured around the hum of the vocalists, around the beat of the drum, the strum of the guitar. The gallery, his work, his life, was merely in structure to the song. He had no desire to exit it yet, basking in his own visual and physical realization of a song he adored.

The boy's name was Sai. He was an artist. He worked part time at a local sweet's cafe in the downtown area. His head for the past six months had been filled with only one sound, the song of his inspiration.

There was always the brief second, though, where the song would halt just for a moment before repeating again. It was in this moment, the smallest measure of time for a boy who lived in a steady beat, that his next inspiration came. It was a hum, nothing more. A melodious voice, small and insignificant against the blaring background of cameras and questions. Only Sai's ears must have heard it because only he seemed to react to it. He turned to the noise, the constant smile dropping from his mouth.

A girl stood with her arms folded behind her back. She wasn't staring at the artwork like the others, nor at her cellphone, nor at herself in a pocket mirror. The sunlight, breaking through a crack in an above window, streamed down on the girl, and she seemed to be fascinated with staring back up at it. At the same time she was humming some incoherent song. Sai's song began again, following its constant loop, but the boy found himself so annoyed with it that he tore the buds violently from his ears. The gallery director, a tall man in a suit, noticed the movement with interest. His eyes watched Sai as the boy fixated on the girl.

She was humming still, her foot tapping the wood behind her absently in rhythm to whatever she was singing.

A member of the press, a woman, began to notice Sai's lack of focus. "Sai?" she asked uncertainly. "Hello?"

"Love," he whispered to himself, eyes widening. "That's what it looks like."

**Chapter 14**

Sakura flitted from shirt to shirt, skirt to skirt, pant to pant, short to short, and finally gave a long cry of frustration, undecided as to what to wear. Nothing seemed to fit for the day, and she found herself so nervous about impressing her new boyfriend that she hardly knew what to do. She was used to wearing her uniform around the stoic, dark-haired Uchiha, and while she liked most of her normal clothes, she would have preferred wearing her uniform all the time rather than deciding what to wear.

After all, she wanted to look cute. No, sexy, but not too sexy— not like she was trying, but enough to give him something to _look _at but not _too much_ to look at. Then maybe cute was the way to go, or maybe something hardcore… Sasuke was a kind of hardcore guy, right? He looked like he beat up people in his free time, and from the bruises Sakura saw Naruto sporting during the time the two hated each other, that guess might not be too far off. So perhaps something edgier was better?

Then again, she was going to an art gallery. Perhaps she should dress more artistic— like wear a hat with a flower or something….

The poor girl was a few seconds from tearing her own hair out when the phone rang, jolting her from her thoughts. Naked save for her white bra and panties, Sakura lunged across her room and flopped on the floor just before her telephone, which had somehow gotten knocked off her dresser in the midst of her jostling about her closet.

"Hello?" she asked into the phone with a pant.

"Sakura?"

"Naruto!"

There was a light chuckle on the other end. "Hey, I was just making sure you were up."

"Uh huh, sure." Sakura raised an eyebrow. "What is it, _really_?"

A moment of hesitation and then another shaky laugh. "Where was the museum again?"

"You forgot the directions already? I wrote them on your palm yesterday, you dork!"

"Yeah, but… but they got rubbed off!"

Sakura sighed. "And how did you manage that, you dweeb?"

Another series of his strange chuckles and Sakura found herself getting a little suspicious. "Nothing, nothing, I guess I was sweating a lot."

Sakura had known Naruto since they were mere infants— She knew when he was lying. His voice would go up an entire octave, crack slightly. If she was looking at him, he would fidget or look down. Charismatic or not, Naruto was the worst liar Sakura had ever encountered, a failing which she found not fault with. His inability, however, put him at a disadvantage if he wanted to hide something from her.

"Naruto…" she said, a warning in her voice.

"Hey, I'll ask Shikamaru for the directions!" he cried, slamming the receiver down at the other end.

Sakura would have screamed back into the phone if it would have done any good, but for now she slammed it down. Naruto was keeping secretes from her! This would not do!

The young girl bolted from the floor and pulled on the first thing that came to her fingers: a light blue summer dress with thick straps and a small hood in the back. She zipped the thing up and threw on some flip flops, tousling her hair and frankly not giving a damn if it was messy. She had to get to the gallery by the time Naruto got there so she could interrogate him properly! Naruto rarely if ever tried to keep things from Sakura, so this new development was enough to have the young girl near death with anticipation.

_Near death. Hah…_

Ignoring her own dark humor, she jogged steadily to the train station, careful to keep her heart rate down by pacing herself. She made it just in time for the midday train, climbing aboard and holding onto one of the bars. The city soon loomed in the distance and then drew nearer until she was within its depths. The museum was not more than a ten minute walk from central train station, where Sakura got off along with half the car's occupants— though she walked a little faster than the rest.

Quickening her pace, Sakura burst into the sun's bright glare and noted how its hue had shifted of late, from the golden light of summer to a more muted white. With the fall approaching, even the sun was changing. Soon the air would smell like a fireplace and the leaves would change color, and Sakura for a brief moment marveled that she might live to see another winter come and go. Winter was somehow always more surreal to her. Symbolically and physically, it was a time of death and sleep, terrifying ideas to a near invalid. But spring, she thought with a smile, always followed winter, and with it came the hope for another year to live, another year to enjoy life.

Sasuke abruptly popped into her head, and she blushed furiously. She certainly was enjoying her time with him— despite the fact that they hadn't spent much of it with each other. Today would be the day that changed, she decided. Naruto's little secret could wait for a while. Sasuke would be there, and they could walk the museum together, talking to each other, holding hands...

The museum steps jarred Sakura out of her daydreams for a moment. She flushed, embarrassed, at herself and noted that she had arrived at the correct entrance to the installation gallery. The sign on the bulletin board caught her eye, a simple black display with white letters. However, the boarder to the sign somehow looked three dimensional, as if it was popping out at her. Strange yet somehow appealing. The words "Pumped Lines," the name of the gallery, carried the same three-dimensional quality as the border.

She smirked, intrigued, and walked up the stairs inside the gallery. Despite the early hour— the museum must have just opened— the gallery was near bursting with excited occupants, news cameras, reporters, and artists; the artwork made Sakura realize why. It was as if everything in the entire gallery were alive. When Sakura cleared the entryway, a painting of a black wolf with white, piercing eyes greeted her with a cold glare, but when she passed the painting, she realized that the other half of the piece had been blasted out, creating a three dimensional animal that still looked as if it were made from brush strokes. Likewise, the walls, floors, doors, even ceilings of the gallery sprang to life with the similar uncanny style, a strange mix of two dimensional paintings brought to life in three-dimensional sculpture. Most of the gallery was flourished completely in black and white, though a stray ray of color caught Sakura's eye. She glanced above her, attempting to decipher the source of the color leaking down from the ceiling.

She walked slowly towards the center of the floor and saw that the blue light didn't come from an intended electronic light but from the window that was just above her head now. A small piece of the window was a stained-glass blue and it spattered color all over the floor as if it were paint. Whether it was a choice by the artist or not, Sakura couldn't tell. However, all at once, she was reminded of Sasuke.

Blue seemed to be a color she subconsciously associated with the silent boy. Despite the fact that she mostly saw him in white shirts and black uniform trousers, Sakura could not help but feel like blue was the color he'd look best in. A gentle fluttering in her heart sent shivers of excitement throughout Sakura's body and she took her time to enjoy the feeling. Staring up into the light of the reflected sun, she thought about Sasuke Uchiha and allowed herself a smile.

"Stop it."

Sakura was jolted abruptly from her silent reverie by a brusque voice. She turned and almost gasped out Sasuke's name. The boy before her looked so similar to him that it was uncanny. He certainly was handsome like Sasuke, black hair partially covered by a raised black hood, black pants, and converse shoes. He even had the same glare on at the moment, staring down at her analytically.

"S-stop what?" Sakura asked with a gulp.

"The humming. Stop it; it's distracting."

"What? What humming?"

"You were _humming_!" he whispered at her fiercely.

"I don't think I was-"

"You were! And now you're not, so don't let it happen again."

Sakura merely stared, completely dumbfounded by the boy before her. Despite the fact that he seemed done talking, he did not leave. He actually leaned his head downward, craning his neck as if Sakura were some sort of uncanny experiment, the most interesting thing in the world.

"What are you staring at?"

"Staring?" he repeated as if the idea was senseless, despite the fact that his eyes did not once stop perusing her smaller frame. "Why would I stare at someone so ugly?"

Not knowing whether he was joking or not, Sakura remained still. "Excuse me?"

"Hideous. Absolutely revolting."

Her anger rose to her face in waves of heat. "Well, if you have a problem with it, you can look somewhere else."

"What song were you humming?"

"What?"

"The song before! The song! What was it called? The band?"

Sakura felt as if the conversation was completely over her head, that the boy in front of her was obviously making fun of her (or he was crazy), and that it was time for her to make herself scarce.

"I think I'm going to go now," she said quietly, trying to turn from him and make a steady dash for the exit.

An arm reached out to stop her. "Please don't go! Wait! I'll do anything if you tell me what that song was!"

"What are you _talking_ about?"

The boy pulled back abruptly and looked at his own hand as if it was on fire. "No… Not the song," he whispered frantically. Without warning, he grasped Sakura by her shoulders. "Please, _please_, let me paint you!"

"_What the hell_?" Sakura cried, exasperated. "What is wrong with you?"

He released her as abruptly as he caught her, his face guarded once more. "I'm sorry. You're just so ugly."

"What the…? You're not making _any_ sense, buddy," Sakura said in exasperation. "And if you don't leave me alone, I'll report you to the security guards, and they'll have you removed."

At this he pulled back and folded his arms, a devious smirk on his face. "That's not likely. I'm bringing a lot of money to this museum through this gallery. They're not even paying me."

"Wait a minute. So this is your-"

"So will you let me paint you?"

Sakura ignored his question. "This is your gallery?"

"Yes, yes, but it's old news—"

"—It just came out!—"

"—So can I paint you? Are you free now?"

"Why would you want to paint an ugly person?" Sakura asked with an air of smugness.

The boy seemed horrified by the question. "What?"

"If I'm so ugly, I obviously can't be painted by a_ great _artist like you."

"No, I didn't mean-"

"I might not be even worthy enough to be standing here in your gallery."

"You can't possibly-"

"I think I'll leave now…"

The boy grabbed Sakura's hands in his own. "You're beautiful," he whispered into her face. "I saw you from across the room. You ignored everything. Everything I worked hard on, everything in my rhythm wasn't enough to hold your attention. You were haloed in a blue light, in that blue dress, and I could hear it. You were humming something, or maybe it was in my head. I don't know, but it felt like… like a love song."

Sakura couldn't quite comprehend this strange person in front of her. She certainly had never met anyone so eccentric before, but the way he expressed himself— with such sincerity and passion— reminded her of Naruto in his most emotional moments. How could she refuse someone who could both enlighten and confuse her in one breath?

"My name is Sakura," she said finally.

"Sakura…" He said, as if thinking. His eyes abruptly widened. "You were at the sweets cafe a few weeks ago."

"What?"

"I'm a waiter there. Or rather, I was before I got this job in the gallery, but I remember you. Pink-haired girl, very ugly."

Sakura shook her head. "I don't really…"

"I don't care if you remember me or not. Will you let me paint you?"

"Not if you're going to be this freaking weird!" she cried, and the entire gallery seemed to halt conversations to zero in on theirs. Sakura felt their gazes and immediately knew it was time to leave.

"Don't go," Sai said fiercely, though seeming to realize as well that people were watching. He refrained from touching her.

Sakura seemed to know that he wouldn't physically stop her. She didn't respond to his plea and quickly retreated, heading for the exit. She could sense him behind her and quickened her pace, feeling a little frightened by the strange boy. She'd never met anyone so socially inept as to call someone ugly in one breath and then beg to paint them in another. It was as if he had no filter from what he thought to what he said.

She reached the front stairwell before she heard him yell again, "Wait, Sakura!"

"Leave me alone!" she shouted over her shoulder, but he grabbed her in the next second. The momentum caused both to stumble, Sakura's feet already slippery in their haste to be rid of her pursuer. They fell, Sakura with a cry, tumbling down the steps until they came to rest near the bottom with a loud _whump_. Dazed, Sakura murmured something the boy couldn't register for a moment.

"What?"

"You're… heavy.. will you—" She stopped when she realized his hand, calmly and almost purposefully, was palming one of her breasts as if it were a ripe fruit. "The _hell_!" she shrieked with a deafening roar, punching Sai clearly across the jaw.

The boy, eyes widening just before the hit in realization of his error, flew back at least half a meter and remained on his back, breathing heavily.

"Sakura…"

The infuriated girl shuddered and stood quickly to her feet, her face beet red and fuming. "Don't you ever come after me again! Pervert!"

"Let me paint you…"

Sakura screamed in frustration and stormed off, leaving the eccentric boy on the ground to stare at her retreating back. It was a good thing she didn't see him whip out a tiny digital camera and take a picture of her retreating form, or she might have pummeled him into the ground again. The boy smiled at the shot he'd taken of her, another song already buzzing in his brain. He didn't even return to the gallery, knowing that everything inside it would disgust him now that he had a new muse. His manager would take care of the details. He had another project to work on.

-oOo-

Fumbling once again with the zipper of his black hoodie, Naruto paced the sidewalk of Konoha city's finest little cafe, the Hokage Tower. Of course all the kids called it "The Tower" for short and for good reason. Despite being a mere cafe, the building had at least six levels, each of them themed differently with different coffee experiences on each floor. On the ground level, The Tower looked as ordinary as any Starbucks, but as one ventured further and further up the levels, the coffee got more expensive, more exotic, and tastier too. Naruto had personally never purchased anything above the third floor, not necessarily a coffee lover, but Sasuke had taken him all the way up to the sixth floor on one of their excursions to buy Itachi a birthday present. It had been extravagant to say the least.

He checked his watch, noting that it was about ten minutes from the projected meeting time and that he would be royally screwed if Sakura caught him out here alone. The pink-haired genius knew just from two minutes on the telephone with him that something was up, and he cursed his own inability to lie to her. He couldn't possibly explain to Sakura the events that had rushed up to meet him like a freight train. He had no idea how to tell her that he had finally found the courage to ask Hinata out on a date, that the girl had accepted, and that they had spent the previous night on her living room couch, making out like vagabonds. He'd never felt so good in his entire life, and even now just thinking about the dark-haired, bright-eyed Hyuga girl had Naruto's heart leaping in his chest. He suddenly hoped to God that Sasuke would come early and distract Sakura from the obvious redness in Naruto's face. Attempting to calm himself down, the boy looked back up towards the cafe's sky scraper-like exterior and sighed. Hinata was a rich girl, heiress of the Hyuga clan and family business. Maybe one day he could afford to buy her something from the sixth floor…

A light panting beside him caused Naruto to turn, and his heart instantly sank. Sakura's pink hair was bobbing its way toward him, the only part of her he could see in the mist of the crowd. As she neared him, he caught her light blue dress and smiled. She probably looked so adorab—

His smile dropped. The girl looked haggard, her dress wrinkled, dust scuffs marring the fabric in several places. Her hair was frizzed and unkempt, sticking out at odd angles, and she looked like she needed a water or she'd pass out. A light sheen of sweat was forming into beads on her forehead.

"Holy shit, Sakura!" Naruto cried, pulling the girl into a swift hug before she could say anything else.

She groaned into his jacket and for a moment he thought she was shaking with tears. Her hands bunching into fists of rage proved otherwise.

"Goddammit, sonofabitch, that guy is so _dead_!" she hissed into his chest, another groan sputtering from her quivering lips.

"Come inside," Naruto said quickly, pulling her by her bare arm while she unleashed undignified streams of curses so vile Naruto almost wanted to burst into laughter. He didn't even need to ask her before she spilled a fantastically crazy diatribe about some boy who was apparently an artist at the Konoha Museum gallery and desperately wanted to paint her.

"Freaking ass! He! Naruto that kid, he…" but she would get so red-faced and angry that she wouldn't finish her sentence and continue to sputter cuss words.

Naruto found it fascinating that Sakura always seemed to find herself in loads of trouble; he mentioned as much with one of his most shit-eating grins plastered happily on his face.

"It's not my fault!" she cried in dismay. "I don't ask for these creeps to come rushing up to me, demanding to paint! God, and now I'm all dirty!" She stopped and seemed to contemplate this. Her face crumpled in horror. "Oh, God, I'm a mess! I can't be seen like this! Not in front of Sasuke! Jesus, Naruto, this is all your fault!"

"What,_ my_ fault!?" Naruto exclaimed, bewildered. "I didn't make you fall!"

"But if _you_ hadn't been acting so damn suspicious, then I wouldn't have rushed out and gotten tripped by that freak!" Again Sakura seemed to realize the words that had just come from her mouth. "That makes no sense— I'm sorry. I know it's not your fault."

The blonde offered a small smile that told her all was forgiven, of course.

She quirked an eyebrow in response. "So… how are things with you?"

Naruto's face immediately flushed a bright, cherry red, and his hands began to sweat. "What? Me? Nothing…"

"Haha, oh no, Uzumaki. I've had a rough day, so I'm not giving up until you spill whatever it is you're hiding."

"Aww, Sakura, come on. Please, just leave it-"

"Tell me." Her voice dropped an octave in deadly seriousness. "Now."

"Naruto? Sakura?"

It was such a tiny voice that Sakura almost didn't hear it over the din of the crowd in the coffee shop, but Hinata's words seemed to hit Naruto like a steel bullet. The boy leapt to his feet, his face a stark crimson.

"H-Hinata!"

The little girl couldn't even make eye contact with the taller boy, her chin tilted toward the floor. Sakura knew instantly that something had transpired in between the both of them, and it made her nearly kiddy with excitement. Finally Hinata must have plucked the courage to confess her true feelings for Naruto! And Naruto must have accepted!

"Awww!" Sakura couldn't help but cry, a bright smile completely changing her face from the angry one it had once been. "You two are too cute! Sit down, Hinata, sit!"

She practically dragged the quiet girl to a sitting position and noted with an air of pride that she was dressed adorably, a cream-colored jacket covering a purple and white dress and leggings. On her ears, Sakura saw tiny little earrings that in the right light held an orange tint. When Hinata's eyes finally looked up to Naruto's, Sakura didn't miss the shy smile that transpired between the two of them.

It was almost too cute to bear.

"Sakura," Hinata said in her small voice, "I'm sorry I'm a little late… Neji was sort of giving me trouble this morning about the skirt…"

"Well, it looks great on you!" Sakura exclaimed happily. "But aren't you hot in that jacket? It's not fall yet! Take it off!"

"Oh, no, I couldn't…"

But Sakura was already helping her out of the cream fabric, revealing Hinata's form-fitting dress top. Sakura was surprised to see Hinata's rather large bosoms, which seemed to almost be popping out of the purple button-up. Sakura felt envy for the shy girl as she half glared, half admired them, but as she flicked her eyes to Naruto, she saw the boy was certainly having other thoughts about Hinata's endowment. If she didn't know any better, Sakura could have sworn she saw a primal spark flicker in the sea of Naruto's eyes, but it was gone in the next second.

She was so enraptured in her study of the unlikely pair that she nearly missed Ino and Shikamaru burst through the door, Ino dragging the lazy kid in by the arm and shouting joyously when she saw the trio in the corner.

"Jesus, Sakura!" she exclaimed when she saw the state of Sakura's dress and hair. "What happened to you? Never mind, you can tell me when I'm cleaning you _up_. Come on!" Before Sakura could inhale to protest, Ino's overenthusiastic hands were now latched onto her arm, dragging her from the group into the girl's bathroom. Ino's hands worked almost as fast as her mouth, putting every hair on Sakura's head in place, smoothing the wrinkles of her dress, and magically erasing the dirt stains with nothing more than water and paper towel. "I work in a flower shop. Of course I know how to get these stains out!" she cried, while merrily chatting about how she and Shikamaru have been having the "best time ever" dating. Sakura tried not to think of Sasuke, fearing she might get nervous and make herself look like a fool. Surely he was outside even now, waiting for them.

The pair of girls finally made their way out of the ladies room, approaching their group, which had grown considerably in size since they had gone. Apparently Hinata's friends, Kiba and Shino, had invited themselves along for the day, which seemed to irk Naruto somewhat since Kiba was over-affectionate to the shy girl, who was unfortunately caught in the middle. Likewise, Neji had shown up, two more people in tow. Sakura didn't quite know the two— they appeared to be upper classmen— but she reflected that the girl, her hair curled into two buns at each side of her head and holding Neji's hand gently, must have been Neji's girlfriend. And the boy…

Ino burst into a fit of giggles when she saw him. "Oh, God, he is violating so many fashion laws. He needs an intervention!"

"Ino, be nice," Sakura whispered.

Though even she could admit that he appeared to be... eccentric. The boy's sharp, strait-edged bowl cut was already so offensive to the eyes that it almost took from the bushiest eyebrows Sakura had ever seen. As if the collective facial and head hair wasn't enough, the boy's sense of color coordination (as Ino would say) was obviously lacking: everything he wore was the same shade of stark forest _green _so blinding in intensity that Sakura herself almost threw caution and civility to the wind in favor of hysterically laughing with Ino.

Somehow maintaining her composure, she addressed Hinata's cousin. "Neji, good to see you. Are you going to introduce your friends?"

Neji raised a poised eyebrow, and his pale eyes narrowed for an instant in obvious contempt. Just in time, the girl at his side nudged him gently and held a hand out to Sakura. "Hi, sorry about Mr. Grumpy here. He's still mad at me about making him let Hinata out of the house this morning. I'm Tenten."

Sakura blinked, recognizing the name. "No way… Tenten Hyakuchu? You're the—"

"First female winner of the national Kendo Competition for Konoha High," Neji bragged, obviously pleased with himself for catching such a girl.

Tenten rolled her eyes and leaned close to Sakura. "I saw you at the track competition a few weeks ago. You were spectacular. Do you think you'll run track in college too? You must be hounded with offers by now."

"Oh… college," Sakura said in barely a whisper. In all honesty, she had been receiving copious offers from colleges all over the country, but she hadn't bothered to make a response to any of them. _I won't possibly live __**that**__ long_ she thought with a flutter of nerves. College was over a year and a half away, and with things going the way they were…

_**No way**__ am I thinking about this today_!

"Yes," she said finally to Tenten, "but it's hard to pick one, you know?"

Tenten nodded, eyes widening in understanding. "Oh, yeah. I know."

"So are we going to go or what?"

For once, Sakura was grateful for Naruto's big mouth, which was now stammering a million miles a minute about needing to make the museum before a certain time. The group, large as it was, eventually made their way out of the coffee shop and into the open street. In light of the events preceding her advancement from the gallery in the first place, Sakura could feel her apprehension grow.

"Naruto," she whispered to her blonde friend, "do you know when Sasuke's coming?"

"Sasuke?" he repeated. "Ah… no idea. Did you call him?"

"C-call?" Honestly, she hadn't thought of it. _Brains_, she scoffed to herself. _Yeah right_. "I don't have his number. We never really…"

"That tight ass really didn't give you his number?"

Sakura put fingers over Naruto's moving lips to silence him before the rest of the crowd caught wind of their conversation. "It's not all his fault. I never gave him my number either. Finals were happening, and… well, there just wasn't time."

"You two are the weirdest dating couple I've ever heard of. I mean look at Shikamaru and Ino."

Sakura flicked her eyes to Ino's purple dress, watching it sway to her movements before settling her gaze on the girl's fingers, locked tightly with a seemingly indifferent Shikamaru. Though as Ino pressed herself close to him, Sakura noted with a small smile how his thumb grazed over the skin on the back of Ino's hand, a small but affectionate gesture.

"They're adorable."

"And Shikamaru is the most lazy ass I know," Naruto put in.

"Alright, fine, I get it. I'll get his number."

"Well, it won't help you now."

The validity of Naruto's statement coerced the girl into rolling her eyes, mostly in frustration at herself. "Can't you call him for me?"

"Nope."

"Aw, come on, Narut—"

"I don't have a cell-phone. Jumped in the pool with it two days ago." He nervously rubbed the back of his head and grinned sheepishly.

Two years ago, Sakura would have been screaming about how stupid Naruto was for making such a careless mistake, but now she only grinned widely and slapped him affectionately on the back of his head, just for good measure. "So you're useless to me."

"I'm useless to you," he agreed with a laugh. "But it shouldn't be that big of a deal, right? Sasuke will know to meet us at the museum."

Sakura nodded but felt a sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach. The idea of returning to the museum filled her with disdain— that creepy guy was there— but opting out of it appeared to be impossible, not with Sasuke counting on her to be there. And Ino too. The whole reason Sakura had wanted to attend the museum in the first place was to spend time with Ino, and she wouldn't go back on her word just because of some weirdo guy who—

"So you came back."

Sakura literally _jumped_ out of her own skin at the sound— coupled with the overly familiar arm looped around her neck. "H-hey!" She spun to Sai's grinning face, so close she found herself blushing furiously at the proximity.

"Missed me, did you? Or do you want to start now? I have a studio near here."

The group had yet to notice the boy at her side, and Sakura wanted to keep it that way. She tried to pry the boy's hands from her shoulders as quickly and quietly as possible, but he insistently held onto her. "L-look," she tried, "I'm just here with a few friends, alright? I told you before, I'm not interested."

"But you're here," he purred, dark eyes flickering with mischief. With a casual gesture, he brought the hand that was wrapped around her shoulders to Sakura's pale neck. A series of goose bumps broke across the skin being touched. "That must mean something— I've been trying to figure out which paint to use… oil, watercolor? What do you think?"

"I told you I don't want you to paint me!" she whispered furiously. "I'm here with friends, see?" She pointed to the crowd of teens gathering around one of Sai's most eye-catching pieces.

He looked at them as if he doubted their existence. "Who?"

"I'm serious!"

"Very well. Agree to let me paint you, and I'll let you go."

"Wait— what? No!" Exasperated, she hardly knew what to do.

"Oh, come on, that's a fair trade."

"Like hell it is!"

He laughed, dragging an inquisitive finger over her collarbone. Trying to ease his grip on her, she attempted to pry his hands from her body, but he seemed to take her unease as an invitation to approach closer.

"I don't mean anything harmful," he said with utmost seriousness. "I just want to paint—"

He stopped, mid-sentence, and Sakura wrinkled her eyebrows in confusion. Eyes glancing above her head, he detached himself from her in the next moment. "You really should have told me."

"Told you…" she trailed off, not understanding.

"That you have a boyfriend."

Sakura's eyes widened, her heart palpitating a mile a minute. Of course, she thought hazily for a moment, just as she began to turn, Sasuke would come at the exact right moment and save her from the creepy artist. Her knight in shining armor… every girl's dream—

She spun around just in time to see Naruto bearing down on them, eyes narrowed into slits as he looked down at Sai.

"Sakura, is this the guy you were talking about before?"

Calmly, she quelled her disappointment to a level where she could operate, determined not to act the spoilt child, despite her childish fantasies of Sasuke saving her from peril. "Y-yeah," she stammered, embarrassed. Her cheeks flushed a dusted pink. "But I don't think he means any harm. He's just a little…"

"Look, bub, back off," Naruto cut her explanation short, stepping in between his friend and the stranger. "She's taken. Go on." He waved a dismissive hand, and Sai stepped backward, hands extended in peace.

"Naruto, don't be rude," Sakura said softly. With him at her back, she didn't mind being a little bit nicer to Sai.

He seemed to catch her ease around the taller, blonde boy and extended a hand. "I'm Sai. This is my exhibit. I'm sorry if I came off a little rude earlier," he finished, looking at Sakura pointedly as he said it to convey the words were for her. She nodded slowly in understanding, though did step a little behind Naruto just to be safe.

Naruto hesitated, looked at the hand, back at Sakura, who didn't quite know what to do about the whole exchange, and then gingerly took the offered appendage. "I'm Naruto Uzumaki. This is Hinata Hyuga."

Beside Naruto, Hinata bobbed her head in a silent, timid greeting, but Sai beamed at her in return. That eerie smile that Sakura remembered from before returned, though it faded a tinge as he looked back to her. "In my eagerness before, Sakura, I was a little hasty. I do want to paint you still, but perhaps we can get to know each other first."

The words sounded a little suggestive, and she took another step back.

"Dude," Naruto butted in aggressively. "What did I say about her being taken?"

"I can assure you, I'm not in the business of thievery," Sai replied with the utmost sincerity, though Sakura could have laughed at his words. "I just want to paint her."

"Well?" Sai turned back to Sakura, who helplessly had no idea what to do. His eyes, colored a deep, forest brown, shone with the same light she saw deep within Naruto's eyes, the eyes of someone who lived with true talent and ambition. She deeply admired Naruto for how persistent he always was, and this boy too, though a little more frightening, possessed the same quality.

"A-alright," she said at last. "But you'll have to schedule it around me, and there's _no way _I'm going to be… n-naked or anything, alright?"

Sai positively beamed in happiness. "Thank you so much! I take back ever calling you ugly!"

They exchanged numbers, and he gave Sakura a last nod and a wink before disappearing once more into the crowd. Naruto muttered a "good riddance" under his breath before chuckling to lighten the mood. "That guy kind of was a weirdo, huh. Sakura?"

He peered over to her, where she stood with her head down. She shook herself and glanced up to him with a soft smile and a shrug. She wouldn't be a brat, she told herself. Simply wouldn't. She'd endured bone needles jabbed into her arms with more finesse, and those things hurt worse than broken bones at times. However, when Naruto cordially offered his arm to go, she took it without hesitation, needing _something_ to hang on to in her disappointment. She could be satisfied, she assured herself, with Naruto as her knight in shining armor for today.

Though, as they rejoined the group a few moments later, she wondered where Sasuke was for the millionth time that afternoon.

**Hate me for not having Sakura/Sasuke goodness in this chapter? That's okay! Plenty of fluff to come, I promise!**


	15. Tower

**Chapter 15**

**The Tower**

The curved, golden pendulum smoothly loped from side to side, an easy ticking noise emitting each time it reached its zenith on either side. With mild interest, Sasuke watched it rock back and forth, flicking his eyes upward to the tiny minute and hour hand in the ancient clock. Then, of course, his temper would flare at how horribly _late_ he was for his outing at the museum.

Unbeknownst to the young Uchiha, his elder brother had scheduled a parent/ (or in this case, sibling) teacher conference with each of Sasuke's teachers as well as with the principle. Required to attend by the request of his brother, he'd been forced to sit outside each meeting room for hours on end while his brother was informed of his academic prowess. Sasuke was occasionally called into the meeting rooms so his teachers could brag about his incredible grades and motivation to his face, and Sasuke might have been grateful for such sincere praise if he hadn't had a pair of green eyes swirling about in his brain. Irrationally (for he'd just seen her a day ago or so) he found himself wanting to be in Sakura's company. He felt the nagging sensation of _missing someone_ (a feeling he was accustomed to with Itachi being away so often) to be completely inappropriate under present circumstances. After all, he was yet a high school student. What was more important than his grades?

Shifting uncomfortably on the small, wooden chair, he didn't have to think for more than a second about what he currently thought to be more important than his schooling, though it vexed him somewhat. Checking nervously down the hallway for some form of life, he glared back at the small cell phone in his hands. He had given his word to Sakura that he'd attend the outing with her friends, had even looked forward to it, he thought ruefully. Now he couldn't do so much as call her to explain the delay in his arrival, and with that thought came the series of self bereavements at not having obtained her number before today. Honestly, what sort of boyfriend didn't have his girlfriend's number?

He swallowed an unexpected lump in his throat and continued to watch the golden pendulum. The light of the afternoon sun pooled like water drops from the wide open windows. Konoha High lay eerily quiet; Sasuke was used to seeing it in an ever constant bustle during the week, though naturally Saturday left it much emptier. His black shoes scuffed the tile floors angrily, and the sound echoed across the empty hallway. Finally, mercifully, the door to Itachi's final conference meeting opened. Kakashi Hatake stepped outside, a white clipboard in one hand, while his other gestured Sasuke with an open palm inside. Beyond the door, Itachi looked rather ridiculous in one of the school desks, clothed in a form-fitting suit and tie though sitting as casually as a teenager. Sasuke recalled briefly that Kakashi had also taught Itachi when he'd attended Konoha High, the boy and realized with bitterness and raw anger that perhaps the past half hour had not been wholly engrossed in his academic future. They were probably swapping stories, those idiots!

"Sasuke," Itachi said with one of his rare smiles from the chair. He looked near gleeful to be sitting in an old classroom again.

Sasuke stood to his feet and gave a nod to Kakashi, but he was so impatient to be leaving that he found himself making his way down the hall.

"Not so fast, Sasuke."

He nearly groaned as Kakashi grasped his wrist with his hand, ushering him quickly into the classroom and sitting him in front of his desk. Honestly, he didn't have time to sit through another regalement about his grades. He had nearly a hundred percent in Kakashi's class, and therefore the older gentleman had nothing to say that Sasuke did not already know. Grumpily, he resigned himself to silence, hoping if he said nothing, the session would pass quickly.

Kakashi obviously sensed his impatience and chuckled. "This won't take long, Sasuke," he assured with a playful ruffling of Sasuke's hair. The boy glared daggers back but didn't move or say anything. "What I wanted to talk to the pair of you about is Sasuke's future."

Itachi smiled here, brimming with pride. "Yes, we've already received offers from some of the most prestigious universities in the country. I'm sure if Sasuke applied to any of them he'd be accepted."

Kakashi nodded. "Yes, that's true, which is why I think it would be best for Sasuke if during his senior year, he spent his school time in one of the local colleges. It'd be good experience and by the time he's graduated, he'd have taken care of his first if not second year of college. It's the most expedient way to excel."

Sasuke froze, unable to make a reply. Cautiously, he eyed Kakashi up and down and noted that his teacher truly wanted the best for him. His expression was serious, though kind if the look in his brown eyes meant anything.

"We had considered that," he heard Itachi say slowly. "But Sasuke's developed an attachment to the school. And I know the harm in making someone grow up too quickly. My father all but forced me to graduate early. I wouldn't do something similar to Sasuke."

Kakashi looked back to him and leaned heavily against one of the nearby desks. "What do you think, Sasuke?"

For a brief moment, Sasuke didn't know _what _to think. Normally a suggestion of this magnitude would have him floored. This was the sort of opportunity he'd been craving. He'd always wanted the ability to rise from the normal, boring life of a high school student to somehow catch up with Itachi, who had graduated so early and already was the head of the family company. And yet, now that he had the ability to forgo classes at the Konoha High building— actually attending college courses in the meanwhile— he found himself hesitating. Why?

Of course he knew _why,_ he thought with exasperation. The cartwheels his stomach enacted was more than enough for him to realize. With his moving upward from high school to college courses, the probability of seeing Sakura throughout the day would be slim to nil on average. He reasoned that of course he could see her after school, though for some reason that didn't pacify him. There was something heavily satisfying of turning a corner in the hallway on a cool morning and being confronted with her bright hair in the light of the sun. There was something wonderful about being able to look out the window of his English class to see her practicing the high jump during her P.E. hour. Likewise, all the small moments he saw her rambling about in the hallways, flitting about from place to place, busy as ever with the many clubs she'd joined, had been cataloged inside his head like precious little nuggets of imagery. In his most violent of moods, they soothed him. If he attended college courses while she was in school, the creation of those moments would cease.

That disturbed him greatly.

"I understand if you need time to consider it," Kakashi said, though his tone hinted that he didn't quite understand if Sasuke needed time. From what he knew of his student, Sasuke prided his academics above anything else. Why should Sasuke hesitate?

"I think that'd be best," Itachi replied, his eyes glinting with a knowing light as he turned his head toward Sasuke.

The young man's face grew more disturbed. Logically, he knew that to forgo an opportunity to excel because of emotional attachment was wasteful. Itachi would never make a decision based off emotion, he was sure. Certainly, he _should_ take the offer. He'd be able to see Sakura after school.

But then again, what if something happened to her during school, as it had before? He shuddered to consider what might have befallen her if all those weeks ago he hadn't been there to give her CPR in the classroom. What if something similar occurred again, and he was not within proximity to save her?

At the same time, the most malicious and selfish side of him countered that if she died while he was away, it wouldn't be his fault. He had himself to think about, after all— his future.

Immediately disgusted with himself at the very thought, he nearly rose from his chair to throw himself out one of the windows. What sort of cold bastard was he to even _consider_ such a cruel notion? And to Sakura, one of the sweetest beings he'd ever encountered…

"We'll discuss it at home," Sasuke heard Itachi say to Kakashi as he got to his feet. For some reason, Sasuke remained rooted in his chair, confused and angry with himself. He couldn't understand his hesitation, and then couldn't understand why he shouldn't hesitate, and then was frustrated by his inability to act based on logic, only to become angrier with himself at thinking so selfishly.

"Come, Sasuke." His brother gently pulled him to his feet, and silently he followed until they'd exited the premises. Itachi had taken his car today, and Sasuke slid into the passenger seat, his head a tumult of different thoughts. When they were pulling out of the school's small parking lot, he felt Itachi's eyes slide from the road onto him.

"What Kakashi said upset you." It wasn't a question. Itachi knew him well enough to understand when Sasuke was affected by something. "You don't have to make any decisions now. You're still in the middle of your third year. You've got a few months before you have to decide anything."

"There's no reason to hesitate," Sasuke said with some bitterness, though even as the words exited his mouth they tasted terrible. He fought to keep from physically gagging.

"Oh?" Itachi pulled into traffic. Outside the window, the city bustled with life. They passed The Tower, and Sasuke briefly realized the museum was not far away. He leaned up abruptly.

"Itachi—"

"You left yourself a note on the fridge, remember? '**Museum trip, 10Am',**" his brother quoted with a small smile. "I didn't see it 'till this morning. You could have said something."

"I didn't want to interfere with your plans. You're busier than I am."

Itachi let out a small laugh. "You know, I was happy to see the note, and then confused why you didn't tell me about it… So the girl will be there. This Sakura…" Sasuke started, and obviously that was all the answer Itachi needed. "You don't have to force yourself, little brother. I've done a lot of things in my life that were the 'right' thing to do, but I'll admit they didn't make me any happier."

Itachi stopped in front of the museum entrance. With a smile on his face, he placed a hand on Sasuke's forehead, prodding him until Sasuke was wincing at the contact. With a gruff smack, he pushed his brother away. "Have fun, Sasuke. I didn't when I was your age, and I still regret it."

Sasuke paused, taking his brother's words very seriously. With a nod, he finally exited the vehicle. Itachi gave him another wave before pulling off, and for a moment he stood still as a statue, struck.

He'd never known that Itachi had possessed regrets. Like anyone, he'd assumed that Itachi greatly prided himself on his accomplishments at an early age. Certainly he had foregone the simple pleasures of youth, but of course the rewards were the important thing. Itachi had wealth, power; he was the head of one of the most successful companies on the continent. What sort of man of his standing could admit to regrets, especially when he was still so young? Itachi wasn't a day over twenty-seven and yet he had more power than the presidents of some countries. Sasuke had always looked up to his brother as a beacon of success— not a man who could admit to pining after his childhood.

Numbly, Sasuke entered the museum, his eyes open yet blind to the things around him. He searched absently for the telltale blonde or pink hair that would give away Naruto or Sakura, yet he didn't see them. Checking his watch— cursing when he found it was already past one in the afternoon— he concluded that he must have missed them. A twinge in his chest had him closing his eyes, rubbing the back of his head. He could call Naruto— no, he couldn't, he remembered. That fool, Naruto had jumped in his apartment's pool a few days ago with his cellphone lodged in the pocket of his jean shorts, and the device had been of course ruined from that moment on. Now there was no way to contact the blonde simpleton, and Sasuke once again cursed himself for not getting Sakura's number.

As if on cue, his own cellphone began to buzz prominently in his jacket pocket. Retrieving the device, he noted a number he didn't have saved in his contacts and hesitated a moment. Sometimes, random girls or jealous boyfriends called his number at all hours, leaving him strange and creepy messages or death threats, depending. Though, under the present circumstances, he felt the need to vent anger on something and so answered the phone, hoping it might be one of the admirers who he could yell at.

"Hello."

"Yo, Sasuke!"

He wouldn't admit to being relieved, though he did let out a relaxed breath. "Naruto."

"Hey, you're lucky Ino liked you enough to get your number, bro! Where _are _you anyway?"

"My brother had a conference today; had to go to that. But I'm at the museum now." He wanted to ask about Sakura, but stupidly, he felt his face burn at the inquiry on his lips, where he let it die.

"Oh, okay. Me and Hinata are at the Tower again, with Ino and Shikamaru…"

_And?_ Sasuke wanted to prod, but the word stuck in his mouth like cotton. He pulled the phone away to clear his throat. He certainly should be expected to ask about Sakura, he thought quickly. If they were dating, then surely asking about her wouldn't degrade him in any way. Though even when he attempted to get the words out, his throat clogged and he nearly choked on air.

"Sasuke?"

"I—I'll meet you at the Tower then," he said quickly, hanging up the phone, while Naruto continued to try to talk.

Angry at his own cowardice, he spun back the way he'd come, walking through exhibits and out of the museum. His inability to do anything normal when it came to Sakura was frustrating and belittled his intelligence. There was no reason for him to feel anxious to see her again, and no reason for him to be so apprehensive in inquiring after her. They were _dating_ technically.

Half a mile off, the Tower stood like a beacon against the city skyline in the background, sparkling all in colored lights. Fifteen minutes passed before he entered the structure, sweaty and discontent, and even then he found himself at a loss to where Naruto and his pack of friends were. The Tower, after all, was a massive structure with many of attractions and items to entice the wondering eyes of the ladies. They could be anywhere inside the building. Exasperated and nearly fed up with this sick game of hide and seek, he nearly screamed to hell with everything and left the place straight away. His neck prickled as he felt the stares of ladies anxiously flit his way, while the over cautious eyes of their lovers or relatives followed their gazes to curse him in their hearts. Naruto often called Sasuke cold, inconstant, and oblivious. The blonde claimed that no matter Sasuke's popularity, he didn't even realize it, and in most situations Sasuke could confess to completely ignoring the eyes cast in his direction. But times in public were increasingly hard to ignore. Hyper aware and paranoid of his surroundings as he was, he couldn't possibly ignore the hunger in the eyes of the girls and the hatred in the eyes of the boys, who took him for a rival. He might have left the establishment altogether if the appealing idea of seeing Sakura again did not constantly flit about in his head like a harpy's whisper.

Ducking his head to avoid as much attention as possible, he ventured to one of the adjacent elevators, skimming between the crowds of people, and boarded the vessel just before the doors closed. Inside the cube, a dozen teenagers and young adults were crushed into a space that should have fit only half their number, and they all nearly tumbled out at once on the second floor. Sasuke's eyes skimmed heads eagerly, grateful that this tier was considerably less crowded than the ground floor. Again, neither a flash of blonde nor a strand of pink greeted his eyes, and he found himself getting frustrated. The ding of another elevator behind him released a stream of beings like the waters of a dam, and he found himself shoved along with them like a lost trout. Clinging to one of the walls, he waited for the stream to quiet before he made his way back to the lift, but a gentle touch along his wrist, like the brushing of silk against his skin, caused him to start.

He almost jumped in surprise at Sakura's pink hair, all pulled up with a few rebellious strands falling in a lovely manner about her head and bare neck. Her smile was bright, her eyes lively with exercise and (dare he think it) full of him. Before he could think, she was pulling him into a warm embrace, her small fingers grasping at the fabric of his heavy, dark clothes. He heard her breathe him in like a sigh.

"There you are," she said as she pulled back to look at him. He found his glance flowing with her white skin down to a pretty, light blue dress that stopped just above her knees. It fit her form well and complimented every curve, however slight. Her fingers and wrists were bare, and he reflected briefly how he could perhaps buy something for her to wear on those places left naked. He didn't have time to contemplate it further or even compliment on how pretty she looked before she placed a chaste kiss on the corner of his mouth, obviously done out of impulse rather than design. The pleasing blush that stole across her cheeks in the next moment was proof enough.

Taken suddenly with how lovely she was, he didn't hesitate to catch her in his arms, ignoring her half gasped protests, and press his lips onto hers. Even in public, he couldn't find it in his heart to adhere to modesty. For a fleeting second, as her soft mouth moved in a graceful dance over his, he reflected on how extreme he was. Not two days ago, he'd refused Naruto a brotherly hug, inwardly deeming it too embarrassing for a public display. Yet now he stood, kissing this girl in broad daylight and practically as a show to the dozens of moving spectators, and still he couldn't find a whit of himself that gave a damn. Though all thoughts flew out of his head the moment she pressed her body flush against his, wrapping small hands and arms about his neck. On reflex, his hands in turn stole over the waist of her dress, savoring the soft fabric and the pleasing outline of her hips.

She broke apart breathlessly to whisper onto his mouth, "You're late."

He grunted an affirmative, and pulled her wordlessly behind another wall, in a slightly darkened corner of the café floor. About him tables lay strewn with coffee displays and stands; people were scattered everywhere. Only a second glance could reveal them to the world, yet as he pressed Sakura into one of the dark blue walls, he couldn't find it within himself to feel apologetic, not to her for being late and not to the people around him for kissing Sakura so roughly where they might see him. As it was, he could accredit the fire in his hands and tongue to the anticipation he'd been feeling that morning and even moments before he'd seen her. The anticipation, he deemed inwardly as he rolled his tongue over hers, made everything that much sweeter when it came down to it. Though Sakura herself should be given the most credit for his feelings. After all, none of the anticipation could compare with the excitement in his blood the instant she gave a small moan. No other feeling matched with the one he received upon making her cry out in pleasure, or shudder helplessly against him. Pliant, bendable at times, she could have melted in his grasp and shrunk like liquid to the floor, but something would alight in her bones at the last moment, and they would stiffen and grapple him forcefully. There were times when he would crack an eye and catch her green orbs with his just for an instant, and they practically glowed, terrifying and beautiful with how trained on him they were.

"Sakura," he whispered her name against her lips, reminding himself of who caused the strange swelling within his chest. He instantly regretted it, for she must have remembered who she was as well, and where they were, and what they were doing. Instantly, she stiffened again, and stopped moving.

"No, no," he heard himself say in a pleading voice, kissing her lips with small, quick pecks that could have resembled jabs, but she did not yield. She placed a soft hand against his chest, and when he pulled back to look at her, he found that she could not meet his gaze. Her face, he noted with a miniscule smile, was so scarlet it nearly dwarfed her hair in color.

"Um, Naruto and the others are downstairs. We saw you come in and look, but you, um, missed us I think. That's why I went after you. So we should… return to them, I think." Apprehensively, she stared back up into his face, only to duck away shyly in the next moment.

Somewhat frustrated as he was at being denied her body and kisses further, he could not help the warmth of affection invade his heart at how truly coy she was being in front of him. Almost in effort to make her blush further, he boldly took her hand and his, lacing their fingers in the unquestionable relationship-way and was almost instantly rewarded by the near purple color that washed over her cheeks. He chuckled (noted that it sounded a little sadistic in his ears) and said to her, "We don't have to rejoin the others, do we? We can escape and strike out on our own. They won't miss us."

He was surprised when her head darted upward, meeting his gaze in an all-business like fashion. "No, we can't ditch them, not today. I promised Ino I'd spend the day with her, and I mean to do it. Besides, you…" Here she faltered a little. "I thought you could really get to know everyone. You're always by yourself, and I know you can't enjoy it all the time. Everyone needs friends."

Almost taken aback, he could only blink at her for a moment before he found himself softening. Despite everything he'd already endured, he found himself uncaring if he had to wait a little longer to be alone with her. Without another word, he wrapped his hand tighter around hers and let her lead them back to the lift. Pressing against her in the crowded box, Sasuke allowed himself a moment of mischief, and he gave her a candid kiss on the side of her head, warming her temple and her cheeks simultaneously. Flustered and unnerved, she almost bolted from the elevator when it stopped on the first floor, and he smiled as he trailed silently along behind her.

As Sakura had said, the group was positioned in one of the corners of the café. Sasuke was surprised at the number, far exceeding what he'd believed it to be. Sakura took the time to introduce him to the upperclassmen, two older and taller boys and a petite but fine-eyed girl, and then to Hinata's close friends, two boys in dark hoodies. He nodded mutely to them all, somehow finding himself uncomfortable around a crowd of this size, but whatever apprehension he had, Sakura made up for it by being as vocal as possible. Uncannily like Naruto, Sakura's treatment of the each person of the group was friendly and obliging; her smiles were wide and her laughter roared along with Naruto's in both volume and intensity. Sasuke even saw the shy Hyuga girl, who he saw occasionally grab the blonde's arm in a more-than-friends fashion, pulled along with their joviality. Her soft gray eyes flickered over to Sasuke more than once, timidly, as if looking for his approval as her new beau's best friend. Tacitly, he gave whatever encouragement she'd seemed to have wanted from him, and she did not make direct eye contact with him again. Sakura, her sharp eyes more than likely witnessing the exchange, smiled softly in an encouraging manner, and despite himself Sasuke could name more than once when he'd joined in the conversation.

Kiba and Shino, Hinata's closest friends he discovered much to his bewilderment, were nearly as eccentric as Naruto— Kiba with his loud and gruff manner of speaking and Shino with his awkward logic that was only interrupted by bouts of absolute quiet. Sasuke could tell almost instantly that the upperclassman named Neji was some form of relative to Hinata's, possessing an eerily same face and countenance as his (Sasuke soon found to be) cousin. Luckily for Naruto, the stern, older Hyuga seemed to be unaware of his little cousin's relationship, for he seemed relaxed, holding onto the hand of the girl beside him. Sasuke flicked eyes to Neji's girlfriend, Tenten, who was the most familiar face of the group excluding Sakura and Naruto— though he couldn't say he'd ever spoken with her before. She was a member of Konoha High's Karate and Kendo team, which he of course had joined upon enrolling, and the girl had a reputation of defeating each opponent set before her, on the girls' circuit at least. She spoke with absolute conviction as she tried to persuade Sakura to take college offers more seriously, but other than that she had little else to fit in between Naruto's countless stories. The third upperclassmen made Sasuke's face red in more ways than one, though reasons varied from anger to exasperation to confusion. Passionate and strangely noble, the older boy named Lee was always eager to play the helpful one, refilling drinks and grabbing napkins whenever anyone (Sakura especially, Sasuke noted with a twinge) asked for one. Finally Ino and Shikamaru were, much to Sakura's chagrin, divided from the main party a great deal of the time, sipping cappuccinos and whispering to each other with hooded eyes. Sasuke felt a little warm each time he caught them out of the corner of his eye, watching Shikamaru's hands twiddle absently with Ino's while he said something into her ear. From everything Sasuke could recall about the dark-haired boy, Shikamaru had never appeared to be the… intimate type. Laziness and indifference were his most apparent traits, yet one could not tell looking at him now. Ino as well had been nothing more than Sakura's constant companion and his own occasional stalker, though he noted that with her eyes so glued to Shikamaru's she barely spared him a glance. Certainly, he was grateful for it. He did not wish to imagine some sort of argument between the two girls if Ino continued to fawn over him as she normally did.

Near the end of the day (Sasuke was actually surprised by how the time had flown with the sun inconspicuously setting in the west) Neji thought it prudent to break the party by saying he and Tenten (including Lee) had to depart for the evening.

"Hinata," Neji said to his little cousin, and Sasuke could almost smell overprotectiveness seeping from the man like a perfume, "I'll take you home."

"W-well…" The characteristic stutter, which Sasuke had noticed had not made an appearance until now, bumbled from the girl's pink lips. "F-father said I could s-stay out a little later tonight with everyone…" She lowered her eyes from her cousins the instant she'd spoken the words, as if bracing for impact.

"Then who will take you home?" Neji asked sharply.

"Naruto, of course." Sasuke's eyes flicked to Tenten, who'd taken it upon herself to save both Hinata and Naruto from certain peril. With a smile in her eyes and a gentle touch to her boyfriend's wrist, she continued, "Sakura here tells me that Naruto is the perfect gentleman, and he doesn't live too far from Hinata's house, Neji. He'll take her home. That way," and here she leaned to whisper into Neji's ear, though Sasuke was close enough to hear, "we can go home _alone_, can't we?"

Neji's eyes darted to his girlfriend's, ensnared like a rabbit in a carrot trap, and Sasuke wondered what sort of prowess Tenten had as a girlfriend to make a headstrong and decisive guy like Neji fall completely under her sway. As if to illustrate her point, Tenten wrapped a suggestively lithe arm around her boyfriend's bicep, squeezing.

"A-alright," Sasuke heard Neji murmur. "We can leave first then. Naruto… my cousin—"

"Yes, yes, he'll take her home," Tenten interrupted, casting a wink and a smile to Naruto while standing to her feet. "Come on." She'd successfully grabbed Lee as well on her way back, and by the relieved look on his face, Sasuke could tell that Naruto certainly owed the Karate champion quite a bit. Hinata's relieved expression, coupled with a slight smile, warmed Sasuke's heart a little. Naruto's tanned face broke into one of the widest grins he'd ever seen on the boy, and somehow he could find that he related to the joy of being with the girl he liked. On his arm, Sakura deftly said her goodbyes with smiles to each of the departing friends, taking a special moment to silently thank Tenten for her discretion.

Sasuke felt something in his heart settle happily, like a wave of nervousness dying down into a soft ember of warmth. Sakura's shimmering hair caught the dim light of the nearly vacant café as she craned her head to say goodbye to Kiba and Shino, and when she stood to hug Shikamaru and Ino, her dress lifted very slightly to reveal the toned muscles of her thighs, hardened from all the running he mused. He could tell from the way she moved, the lightness in her eyes, that her heart was the farthest thing from her mind, and he was grateful that he was there to witness her at her happiest.

"You wanna go?" he heard Naruto ask Hinata in a whisper, which was a tone much lower than Sasuke was used to coming from his normally hyperactive friend.

The shy girl nodded without a word and took his hand as she stood. She dipped her head in a polite bow to Sakura, but as Naruto began to slowly drag her away, she held back long enough to say quietly to Sasuke, "I'm glad you came out tonight. It was the first I've seen you among friends."

Sasuke glanced up at the dark-haired girl sharply, and she nearly wilted under his full gaze. Nevertheless, he couldn't help but offer a very, very small smile to her. So Naruto had not only picked a pretty girl, but a kind one as well. She suited him, in her own strange way. With that lingering thought, he watched as they disappeared beyond The Tower's main double doors, veering right toward the train station.

"And then there were two," Sakura said with a chuckle beside him. "Can't believe Ino though. That jerk barely talked to me at all today! She swore today would be for us, and then she can't stop crawling all over Shikamaru."

Sasuke thought back to Shikamaru and Ino's senseless perusal of one another, how enraptured with each other they seemed to be, and thinking about it, he would have snorted in derision at such inappropriate behavior… if he hadn't been so occupied with thoughts of Sakura all day. He seemed hyper aware of every action she took, every move she made, and though in the past he would have disturbed himself with such thoughts, now he couldn't find the means to care. For once, he found himself enjoying being in the moment.

As if sensing his contentment, Sakura leaned against him with a smile, wrapping her fingers into his. "You were… really great today."

"I was late," he said softly. "I'm sorry about that."

She shrugged. "No big deal. Although this morning I ran into some creeper at the museum. Guy was completely off his rocker, kept going on an on about how he wanted to paint me. It was really annoying."

Sasuke's metaphysical hackles instantly rose. "And what did you say?"

Again with a light shrug. "The guy was weird alright, but there was something really sincere in his plea to paint me. In the weirdest kind of way, I think I agreed."

"You _what_?" He jolted so quickly upright that Sakura nearly keeled over onto the back of his seat.

Righting herself quickly, she hunched a little, embarrassed. "Naruto was there; he had my back, and the kid wasn't… I mean, he's just a little passionate about it…"

"You can't just go to this kid's house and let him paint you!" Sasuke growled fiercely. "I doubt his interests supersede painting."

"Oh, come on. He wasn't that bad. Besides, I'd never go alone. I'd bring Ino or something."

"You shouldn't be going at all," he insisted.

Sakura smirked a little, obviously pleased by his protective nature of her. She wrapped a hand around his bicep happily. "What about if you came with me?" She leaned into him gently, placing a soft kiss on the corner of his mouth. "If he ever does call me to paint, then I'll ask you to tag along. I couldn't be much safer than if I went with you, right?" Another delicate kiss, just on the tips of his lips, and he helplessly sighed into the touch.

She was manipulating him, and he knew it. However, logically if he did go along, she would be safe. He sighed again, but mumbled some sort of agreement as she kissed him a little longer, though the pressure against his mouth was so slight it was like a tease.

At length, he had to force himself to straighten away from her, hyper aware of the growing warmth at the pit of his stomach and how dangerous it could be to allow it to continue to heat him up. "I'll… walk you home," he offered.

She smiled, and it seemed a little bit of her shyness returned at his words. "When we get there… my parents aren't home, you know. Would you like to stay for a while? Watch a movie?"

His face instantly was on fire from the idea, though he instantly said, "Yes."

**Next chapter, we get some loving. Awww yeahhhhh! Sasuke be owning all up in this grill, fo real mah homey dawgs. Yeah, have no idea where that came from. **

**Next chapter soon!**


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